


Involuntary princess

by emulikule



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe, Festivals, Friendship/Love, High School, Hinata being forced to crossdress because that's amusing, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-08
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2017-12-28 20:18:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/996133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emulikule/pseuds/emulikule
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the time came to celebrate Hope's Peak's anniversary Hajime Hinata didn't even bother to care. Others could come up with an idea for a school-play and he could settle with helping out with the props, but life isn't that easy, is it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone~ it has come to my attention, that there are just not enough fics for this fandom and so I decided to add something to it. This is probably going to be really OOC, but hey, it's a normal high-school life and no killing involved whatsoever, so I guess that's expected? I also think that I butchered lots of the characteristics... Please forgive me *bows head*  
> This is going to be a multi-chapter fic, but I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update. I'm hoping that I'll be able to finish it soon.  
> Lot's of thanks to my bro xShieru and her nagging. You should REALLY read her komahina fic, because that stuff is amazing~

"Hey...Can you hear me?"

The world brightened quickly when rays of light hit Hinata's still unfocussed eyes. He was leaning on an oak tree in the school's yard and had probably drifted to sleep during the break.

"Huh?" he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. 'When did I get here?'

"Oh good, I thought I wouldn't be able to wake you." said the same voice. Only then did Hinata look up to the person speaking to him.

The sun was straight over the speaker's head, so at first it was hard to make out his face. 'Wait, is this who I think it is?' The silhouette was crouching over him and he could only see a lot of unruly hair sticking out in all directions.

"Oh, I'm so sorry for disturbing you, but the class is about to start discussing the play and we should really hurry. I saw you on accident and thought that you would probably not want to miss it."

'Ah, so I was right.' his waker had been none other, than Nagito 'friends-with-everybody' Komaeda. Strangely though, Hinata had never had any opportunity or reason to even normally speak with this kid, let alone consider him his 'friend'. The white-haired boy was still leaning over him, blocking most of the light and smiling as if he knew a huge secret. He extended his arm to Hinata, offering his help standing up. Hinata took the hand still a bit dazed from waking up so suddenly.

'Where's Chiaki? Wasn't she supposed to be with me?' he thought, silently mumbling to himself. His dream was fading, but flashes of scared and distrustful faces were still haunting his memory. Lifeless bodies and blood splattered everywhere, fear and anxiousness. The dream had seemed dark and ominous, more like a nightmare than anything. 'At least it's just a dream and nothing else. That's what I get for playing horror games with her till early hours in the morning.'

"Did you say something?"

He was snapped back to reality with the voice next to him. 'When had he gotten so close?'

Komaeda was standing mere centimeters away and tilting his head, like a curious puppy.

"N-no, nothing." Hinata stepped a few paces quickly, wanting his personal space back.

"Okay then, let's go or we'll really be late." Komaeda chirped cheerfully, not noticing or perhaps just not showing it had affected him, that Hinata had so abruptly pushed away from him. They walked to class in silence, though Hinata could sometimes hear a faint humming of a happy melody from his companion.

'Well he's sure laid back.' he caught himself thinking. He basically didn't know anything about the white-haired boy except for the fact that he seemed to be quite sociable, though he hadn't seen him hanging out with anyone for extended periods of time. Maybe he didn't have any close friends. He got average grades, though strangely whenever they got a multiple choice quiz from any subject, he always seemed to get the perfect score. Maybe he was just extremely lucky or something.

When they finally reached their classroom and got inside, he saw that they were the last ones in and the rest of the class was already in a heated discussion. Hinata went to sit at his desk, next to Chiaki as she waved sleepily at him. "Where had you been?" she asked after a few seconds, probably collecting her thoughts as she tended to. Hinata had gotten used to it and she usually didn't take long when speaking to him, mainly because they had known each other since they were toddlers. Their parents had been college friends and had decided to have their children babysat together, when they were at work and thus, making them spend a good portion of their childhood together.

Hinata didn't have any complains about that, because he liked Chiaki and spending time with her, so he felt completely at ease with his friend. They were best friends even now and spent every other day hanging out, usually playing video games, since it was one of the few things that Chiaki was very passionate about and they both enjoyed. That said, Hinata still almost always lost to her, but he didn't mind it really, he played for the game, not for the victory.

"For some reason I was sleeping under the oak tree where you were supposed to meet me." he answered a bit irritated. 'And where had she been?'

"Oh, sorry. I forgot." she said, a little smirk appearing on her face.

'Riiiiight, she's still mad at me.' Hinata mentally face palmed himself. 'How could I forget?' He had stayed over at her place last night, because a new game had came out that Chiaki had really wanted to try out. She had been talking about it for weeks and was the first in line when it got released, so naturally, Hinata was also dragged alongside. She had been devastated when she lost it on their first go and Hinata hadn't even been serious about the game, so it hit her even harder. Him boasting didn't help either. She had been sullen all morning the next day.

"Come on, I said I was sorry, what more do you want from me?" he whined.

"I'm not angry."

"Yes you are and I know that."

Chiaki just shrugged and averted her attention to the commotion in the class. People were shouting profanities and accusing others of stupid ideas. The homeroom teacher, Miss Monomi, was trying to calm them down, but to no avail.

"Idiooot! How can you even listen to yourself speak? Were you dropped on your head as a child or are you just that retarded?"

"Ahhh, I-I-I'm so sorry, I won't say anything again."

"Saionji, don't yell at Tsumiki. We're all giving ideas." 

"Sooory, big sis. It's just that I can't bear to listen to that stupid pig." 

'And they're at it again.' Hinata thought to himself, resting his head on his left arm.

Saionji always picked on Tsumiki and the girl never had a backbone to start, so it made the whole thing just that easier for the small-statured dancer. She might appear cute and innocent from first glance, but as soon as she opens her mouth, most start running. Koizumi seemed to be the only exception to this rule as Saionji stuck to her like butter to bread and acted like a sweet little kid around her. Maybe it wasn't so bad; she was just bark and no bite after all. 

The festival, which they were getting ready for, was scheduled to be in about a month. This year to celebrate the anniversary of their school it was chosen, that every class would perform a play, either an already known story or a completely new one.

"Silence!" 

The whole room stilled immediately, since the commanding voice belonged to the princess of the school - Sonia Nevermind. And it wasn't just a silly title given by the students as she was of actual royal heritage and was a transfer student from a small country in Europe, of which no one had ever actually heard of. None the less, everyone respected her and always listened to what she had to say. It was a strange aura surrounding her, that compelled them to do that, but she was a likeable person, so there were no complaints. 

"We're getting nowhere with this, so we need to calm down and listen to what others are saying." Sonia said sternly, "So does anyone have any normal suggestions?"

The room was in complete silence and not even breathing could be heard.

"So I guess not. Okay, then maybe you could listen to mine?" A few people nodded and she continued speaking. "I was thinking we could choose a classical children's tale, but also add some little twists. Does anyone want to suggest a story?" 

Hinata looked at the others, but no one was raising their hands. Then he noticed movement next to him and to his surprise, Chiaki had her hand high in the air. 

"Yes, Nanami, do you have an idea?" Sonia looked at her with a soft smile. 

"...I think we could do 'Snow white'." she said slowly.

"Oh yes, that's brilliant." Sonia clapped her hands in excitement. "It's a cute children's story and has many characters, so a lot of us could act in it!" The class burst in agreement, only a few people stayed quiet. "So if that's decided, we have to choose someone to write the script and be the director of the play." 

"That, of course, will be me." a voice came from the back of the classroom.

Hinata didn't even need to turn his head to know who was speaking.   
The class' so proclaimed 'leader' - Byakuya Togami. It was of no surprise that he would choose the job that had him ordering others around. 

No one objected and Miss Monomi wrote down his name and position on the blackboard. She turned to the class to catch everyone's attention. "So next we should decide on the dwarfs. Perhaps we could offer other students, whom we think would be fit best for the role. The first would be their leader Doc. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Me me me me!" Saionji almost fell out of her seat jumping "I want big sis Koizumi to have this role!" 

"Really? You think I would be the right choice?" Koizumi blushed in her seat. 

"Sure, you're perfect! None of these idiots could even compare.”

"If no one has any more suggestions, then Koizumi shall be Doc." The teacher wrote her name too. "Next in line is Dopey."

"Yes! Ibuki would like to offer Ibuki."

"Why would you even want this role? It's nothing to be desired." The handy boy, who could fix anything he got his hands on, Kazuichi Souda, asked, looking baffled at her.

"Because he is the most awesome and most lovable from the whole bunch! Haven't you ever seen the movie?" Ibuki looked at him as if it was the most basic information.

"B-but that's not how it works..." Miss Monomi tried to object, but Ibuki was already at the board and writing her own name. She skipped back to her seat and sat down with a huge grin.

The teacher just looked at her disbelievingly. “Ech, okay, the third one is Bashful.”

“Mikan!” all of the class said in unison.

“Ehhhh? B-b-but I can’t…” Mikan tried to speak, but no one was listening, so she just lowered her head.

“After this goes Grumpy. I’m not sure if anyone will want this role, but maybe…” Miss Monomi looked at the class expectantly.

“Kuzuryuu should totally take this one, he’s just the one for the job.” The lazy, but somehow able to win all gymnastic tournaments she ever entered, Akane Owari said with a mocking smile at the short tempered boy, sitting a few rows in front of her.

“The hell did you just say?” he abruptly turned in his seat with a glare.

“My point exactly.”

“Don’t worry Kuzuryuu, it’s not as bad as it sounds. You’re going to have a lot of fun.” Miss Monomi was trying to lighten the mood. “You won’t even need to do much.”

“Tch, alright.”

“Wonderful! Next is Happy.”

The room stayed silent for a few moments, everyone just looking at each other.

“If no one is going to say anything, then I offer Souda for the job.” Sonia said sternly from her seat.

The boy stared at her in disbelief and then a huge grin plastered his face. It looked like he was trying to say something, but no audible sound could be heard from him, so he just looked like a gaping fish.

“Look, he’s already acting the part.” remarked Hanamura, famous for his out-of-the-world dishes, that he usually brought during lunch for him and some other classmates.

The teacher wrote Souda’s name next to the others and looked at the list again. “The sixth in line is Sneezy, any suggestions?”

Right at that moment Hanamura sneezed so loud, that the papers on his desk started flying away. Miss Monomi stared at him for a few seconds, then turned to the blackboard ant wrote his name without saying a word.

“Last one left is Sleepy.” she said after a few seconds.

Hinata had already someone in mind and was waiting for this moment. He raised his hand and when the teacher nodded, he cleared his throat and looked at his desk partner, who had their head in their folded arms on the table and was paying no attention whatsoever to what was happening. Chiaki was probably just as tired as him, but she hadn’t had no time to get some rest, unlike him, so it was a perfect chance to get back at her for ditching him in the yard. “I think Chiaki wouldn’t mind taking this place.”

As soon as he said this, she popped her head up, sleep written all over her face.”Did you say anything?” she asked him dizzily. 

"Oh, nothing." he smiled at her.

Chiaki's gaze traveled to the board and it stayed there for a few moments before her eyes widened. She quickly turned her head at Hinata. "Why is my name there?"

"Because you'll be playing in the story that you suggested." Hinata answered with a grin.

"What? I never said that I would."

"I did. We're suggesting classmates, who fit the role best." he said with a coo.

Chiaki looked at him with a blank expression, then went back to staring at the board. "Why aren't there any main characters like Snow White herself, the prince or the step mother?" she asked him quietly.

"I dunno, we just started from the dwarfs. Maybe because there are more of them?"

"...Got it."

Hinata was a bit confused by her reaction. She only seemed upset for a couple of seconds before turning back to her usual self. Damn, and he had thought he would be able to get back at her.

"Since we're finished with the little ones, let's take a go at the other characters." Miss Monomi chirped from the front of the class. "Perhaps next should be the step mother?" 

"Sonia would fit this role!" came Souda's voice. "Because she has the same dazzling beauty as her." he said dreamily. "Oh and she's royalty too, so it fits her to be a queen even more." 

"I have no objections." said Sonia, looking a bit proud of herself.

"It's wonderful that you like your role. Next is the prince."

Chiaki raised her hand. "I offer Komaeda."

The boy looked at her as if she had said that elephants had wings.

"Well he is the social life of the class, so maybe it's not such a bad idea." Hanamura remarked.

"But I'm really not worthy of this kind of honour. For me to be a prince? It's absurd. Maybe Hinata could be better at this than me.” Komaeda tried to rationalize. He seemed really uncomfortable.

“No no, it’s already decided, Komaeda’s gonna be the prince!” Ibuki shouted with excitement.

“If this is all of your decision, then I’ll take it.” he finally gave in sighing.

“Don’t worry, Komaeda, you’ll do just fine.” the teacher looked at him with a warm smile. “And now I think it’s time for the one you’ve all been waiting for – the main character! So let’s hear it, your amazing suggestions!”

About five hands shot up immediately after her words and everyone looked as if they had the best person in mind. Hinata just kept quiet, not wanting to get himself in this mess. He wouldn’t have minded if he didn’t even get a role to play; he could always help with the props or something similar.

Chiaki once again raised her hand and Hinata was baffled by her sudden enthusiasm. She never showed this much attention to something school related, so what had gotten into her now?

Miss Monomi looked around nervously, not being able to pick one of her students. “Erm… ahh…Maybe, maybe you!” she pointed at a random kid with her eyes shut. Everyone followed her finger and at the end of it sat Chiaki.

“Her again?” someone mumbled in annoyance.

“I think we could all agree that this role perfectly fits Hinata.” she said slowly, but trying to look cool.

‘What?’

Hinata looked at her with a half smiling, half shocked expression. “Come on, Chiaki, it’s no time for jokes. Say who you really have in mind. You almost gave me a heart-attack; you shouldn’t play with things like that."

"But I'm completely serious." she stated simply. 

'So this is how she wants to play this game?' "But you need a girl to be Snow White! Last time I checked, I was pretty sure I had been a GUY. So how about that, huh?"

"I don't think gender is that important. Look at the dwarfs - half of them are girls and no one said anything about that."

"She does state a compelling argument." said Gundam, the animal loving, but otherwise borderline creepy one of the class.

"Oh come on, not you too." Hinata pleaded, but then everyone started throwing in their two cents.

"This could be very interesting. I agree with Chiaki and Gundam." 

"Yeah, dude, it's gonna be fun!"

"Hah! Serves you right for not letting me copy your homework."

"Maybe it's not so bad. Look at the brighter side - you'll be the main character."

"Kids, kids, lets listen to what our director has to say in this." Miss Monomi tried to calm everyone down. "Togami, would you mind?"

The boy sat in his seat for a bit, with a look of deep thought on his face, then cleared his throat to get everyone's attention to him. "I believe this will have no change in the script of the story, so I don't care if Snow White will be male or female." he said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Then we have our verdict - Hinata shall be her." said Sonia, to finally settle everything. "Teacher, please write his name."

Miss Monomi glanced at him apologetically, then turned to the board to make it final.

Hinata slumped in his seat, not even noticing when he had stood up from it.

'Perfect. Fucking perfect.'


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here's the second chapter, sorry for the wait. Regarding the comment (wow, I didn't even expect to get any on the first chapter) there's a bit of a silly story. Actually after I wrote that part I saw a post on tumblr the same day, that mentioned how he respects personal space and I was like 'OH right, he really does. How could I forget this?'. But I'm a lazy person and didn't want to rewrite it again, so I left it that way. I'm glad that you took your time to note that, because I always appreciate constructive critisism. That said, in this story Komaeda will act more like he did before the events of the first trial, so keep it in mind. I'm sorry if you won't like this... it's just that I wanted a more easy-going world and relationships.  
> That's all, please enjoy the story~

The rest of the class decided on the characters that were left. Peko Pekoyama, the silent but deadly type who always stuck with Kuzuryuu, got to be the hunter.

Togami told everyone that he would be changing the story to his own accord and so he needed more extra characters. In conclusion, Akane was offered to be the older sister of Snow White and Gundam got stuck with the role of the king of the forest.

Saionji clearly stated that she wouldn't be acting, as she already has 'enough of that' as a dancing prodigy, so she got the job of being in charge of the costumes. She was okay with that, because she could just get her parents and manager to get in touch with the theater and get her whatever she desired for.

They still needed props, so a P.E. teacher, Mr. Nidai, got roped into their play as well. Akane had ran over to gym and asked him for his help. He didn't seem to mind and even looked excited of being able to assist his students.

Hinata got over the initial shock pretty quickly, though he still felt bitter and didn't talk to Chiaki for the rest of the time that they were in class. They decided to start rehearsing as soon as Togami was finished with the story.

Everyone was quite surprised when he came the next day and started handing out their scripts. It seemed like he was really enjoying this job of his, though no one could tell exactly, as he looked the same as ever.

Hinata took his papers and started skimming through them. It didn't look too bad, at least the general idea. He didn't need to act like a damsel in distress or even too girlish. He silently thanked Togami for being considerate of him.

Chiaki apologized for getting him into this whole mess, but still stood her ground on him not backing out of it since they were both together in this. Hinata took her apology and agreed to her terms and conditions. He decided to not make it any harder on himself by acting stubborn and angry.

Homeroom and after class got decided to be the time for rehearsals and everyone got ushered by Togami to learn their lines as quickly as possible, since they only had a month to get everything down and he didn't want to waste any precious time.

After school ended, Hinata got home and into his room feeling a bit tired. He flopped down on his bed and started reading the story that he had to learn by heart in two weeks.

Everything seemed moderately fine, though he was annoyed by the fact that even if Togami had been considerate of him, Snow White still wore a dress and sang for forest animals.

The setting was pretty okay and Hinata was starting to even think that the whole ordeal might not be that bad. All until he got near the ending.

Subconsciously he had known that it had to be expected, but he probably had made himself forget about a tiny little detail, that was very important.

The kiss.

Oh how he had hoped that perhaps Togami would cut this scene and maybe put a fist bump or something. All of his hopes had been shattered by those few lines: 'The prince leans in on the sleeping Snow White and places a kiss on her lips. The curse is lifted off by the strong feelings that they both shared.'

He kept looking at the same paragraph, reading and rereading it over and over again, hoping that maybe he just misread. Nothing changed, though and he lowered his head on the pillow sighing.

'Maybe it's because I didn't help that old lady carry her bags or maybe because I accidentally insulted that man's kid by mistaking him for a baby monkey on the bus. Is this is how karma works? If so, then I probably deserve this, but I'd at least want to know why I got this.' he thought to himself.

Wait!

He suddenly jumped from his bed and started pacing around his room. If he didn't feel like doing it, then obviously Komaeda wouldn't agree to this too. Then both of them could convince Togami to change the scene and all of this could be over and way easier.

Hinata couldn't believe he hadn't thought of Komaeda in this sooner. He was practically in the same position as him. Well okay, not exactly the same. He didn't need to prance around in a frilly dress and sing with small birds, but he did need to act as he was completely head-over-heels for another guy.

Hinata decided to confront the other boy as soon as he got to school and have him help Hinata convince Togami to be rational. 'I can still make everything at least tolerable.' he smiled to himself.

*

Hinata had gone to school unusually early for him and had caught Komaeda as soon as he entered the classroom. He explained everything to the white-haired boy.

"So this is how it is. Now are you on the same page as me?" he asked, eagerly waiting for a positive answer.

"Not really." came a simple reply from the other boy.

"You can't be serious." Hinata looked at him almost lost for words. "You'll have to KISS me!"

"So?"

"'So' what?" he was starting to get irritated. "Don't you want to avoid this if possible?"

"Hinata, I don't think that you're familiar with the story. It is essential that there is a kiss between the two main characters. It cannot be cut out just because you don't want to do it. You were chosen for this role by our wonderful classmates and we should give it our all for this hope that they put in us." Komaeda started ranting.

Hinata could not believe what he was hearing. So he was alone in this after all? Komaeda had seemed keen on playing his part exactly the same as it was given to him and didn't look bothered by any of the details. It was hopeless to try and convince him otherwise.

"...how about that?"

Hinata looked back at Komaeda. 'Was he talking to me all this time?' "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

"I said I was thinking we could meet up and practice our roles, since in Togami's story the prince and Snow White interact a lot more. What do you think?" Komaeda repeated without looking annoyed at the least.

"Ahh, maybe not." Hinata tried to turn down the other's offer. "I have a lot to do and I don't have much free time. I think it'll be enough from what we get during school."

"Alright." Komaeda said. A look of dejection quickly passed on his face, but Hinata blinked and he seemed like his normal self again.

The bell rang signaling for class and he hurried back to his desk.

*

"So are you ready for practice?" asked Togami after the classes were over.

"Hell no, it's been one fucking day." Kuzuryuu snapped back at him. "You think we haven't got anything better to do than cram these shitty lines?"

"I see." Togami replied in monotone. "Then just practice while reading from the papers."

Kuzuryuu was about to say something back at him but Peko put her hand on his shoulder and shook her head. It seemed to get his steam out and the easily angered teen refrained from saying anything more.

The rehearsal was very short, because none of them had actually started learning their parts and reading from papers took too long and looked too forced. After fifteen minutes Koizumi clapped her hands to get attention to her.

"This is getting us nowhere so let’s call it quits for today." Togami humf'ed at her words. "We'll be able to rehearse normally when everyone learns their words. We have till next week to do so, but that doesn't mean that you'll be able to slack off. At least learn the first few pages.”

Some people groaned in agreement, others just glanced at her with a thankful look.

“That said, I still think that some of us shouldn’t be practicing alone in their free time.” she continued speaking. “A few of the characters interact with another quite a lot, such as the queen and the hunter and also the forest king. The prince is a more important character in this story too, so he and Snow White spend more time together. My suggestion is that these people should also get to know their partners better and practice their roles together.”

Hinata wanted to protest, as this was the same as when Komaeda offered to hang out more, but others immediately agreed to Koizumi’s offer and he was left with a slightly open mouth, ready to say something, but never managing it.

“This doesn’t mean that others, who want to go over their lines with the characters that theirs interact with, shouldn’t do that as well. The more the better.” came Togami’s voice.

The bell rang and Hinata started getting ready to go home. He really needed some time for himself, but the universe just didn’t want to let him go so easily these past few days.

“Hinata, wait up!" Komaeda stumbled to him, nearly falling over because of the backpacks on the ground. Hinata grabbed the other's shoulders to steady him and not let him fall only by reflex. He let go of the taller boy instantly upon realizing what he was doing.

"Thanks." Komaeda smiled warmly and Hinata could have sworn he felt something flutter in his stomach, but that was completely ridiculous and he swatted the thought and feeling away.

"What did you want?" he asked trying to look as indifferent as possible. There was no way that he'd let Komaeda get to him. He wanted his peace and quiet and the boy was a complete opposite to that, at least in Hinata's mind.

"Well Koizumi did say that we needed to get to know our partners, so maybe you would want to go somewhere with me? We could practice a bit or if you don't want that, then we could just hang out. What do you say?" he asked, his eyes shining in the sunlight, which came through the windows. Hinata tried to look away, but that green, glossed over by a tint of grey, sucked him in. 'Did Komaeda always had such interesting eyes?' 

"Okay." he caught himself agreeing, completely forgetting his earlier decision.

"That's great."Komaeda smiled even wider. "The weather is really nice today. Let's go to the park."

Hinata didn't want to just go and be completely alone with the boy, though. He nudged Chiaki, who was about to stand up from her desk and leave. She turned to the brunet with a questioning look.

"That is, I would go with you, Komaeda, but you see, I had already made plans with Nanami." he tried winking at her, so that the other boy wouldn't notice. Her eyes widened a little, but she caught on quickly.

"...Yes, me and Hinata were planning on going to the park." she tried helping the other out. 

Hinata had to control the urge to hit his head on the table with all his might. She just had to pick the park too, didn't she.

"Oh, well that's the same where we were going, so it's even better." Komaeda grinned at her, though it looked kind of cold. "You're also in the play, so the three of us can all get to know each other." he continued, not letting down his cold smile.

Chiaki looked back at Hinata, as if asking him what to do next. He sighed and finally stood up taking his bag. "Then let's go, the day's not going to last forever."

*

The three of them walked in an awkward silence at first, but then Komaeda tried to lighten up the mood.

"So what do you think about your role, Hinata?" he asked innocently, though the shorter boy noticed, that he was avoiding mentioning Chiaki or even acknowledging the girl. 

"Well, Chiaki was the one who thought it would fit me, so you should probably ask her why she thought that. I'll merely do as I'm told by the script." Hinata answered, trying to get the short girl to also speak. Komaeda just looked at her, but his face didn't show any emotion.

"...I thought that it might be more interesting to have a boy playing Snow White." she said, drawing out some of her words. "I also wanted to see you two interact more, because Hinata doesn't have enough friends."

"Hey!" the shorter boy quickly turned his head to face her. "I have plenty of friends!"

"Name them." she said with a little smile.

"Alright! Let’s see: you, Souda, Ibuki, Tsumiki... Erm... Oh, yeah - Kuzuryuu."

"I don't think Kuzuryuu counts as a friend, Hinata." 

"Of course he does! He doesn't yell at me as much as he does to others." the brunet said with a proud smile while puffing out his chest.

"If you say so. Still, that's not a lot of people and you need to widen your horizons." Chiaki retorted simply.

"Yeah? Well what do you know." he said lamely. 'Great going, you're probably five years old and your seventeenth birthday was all a lie.' 

He then averted his gaze from the pink-haired girl. His eyes traveled to Komaeda, who had been silent while they were having their little debate. The boy looked as if he had heard some amazing news. 'What's gotten into him?'

"And Komaeda, how about you?" Chiaki asked.

It looked like he was snapped from whatever daydream he had been having. "Ahh, me? I'm surprised that everyone thought that I should play the prince, since it's such an important role and I'm not really fit for that." the white-haired boy answered, lowering his head a bit so that his hair covered his eyes.

He looked pitiful and Hinata couldn't take it so he nudged the other's arm playfully. "Don't say that, you'll do great. Besides, you have me by your side and I won't let you fail. Then both of us would look bad and I wouldn't forgive you."

"Trust me, you don't want to see him angry. Not a pretty sight and a really bad thing for expensive china." Chiaki said while kicking a pebble that was in front of her.

"That happened once. Don't you know how to let go?" Hinata scoffed at her.

"Well you sure knew how to let go of the cup in your hands."

The brown-haired boy just groaned at her and didn't add anything more. Then he heard a soft giggle next to him and turned his head towards the noise. Komaeda was covering his mouth with one hand and silently laughing at the conversation that had happened near him. A small smile crept up on Hinata's face too and he also started snickering. That soon evolved into loud laughter from both of the boys and even Chiaki joined in with her quiet laugh.

The teenagers soon reached the park and the tension that had been between them had disappeared as if it had never been there in the first place. They settled under a big tree on the soft grass. Chiaki had a cloth for something that she had needed in home economics so they used it to sit on. Komaeda had some food from Hanamura that the boy had given him during lunch, but he never finished it, so he put it out for everyone to eat. 

"Now thif if like a weal picnic." said Hinata while stuffing his face full of sandwiches.

"Slow down, Hinata...there's plenty of food for everyone." Chiaki said sleepily. Just as her last words left her mouth, the brunet started gagging. Komaeda, who had been sitting right next to him, reacted quickly and hit Hinata on the back a couple of times, so that he wouldn't choke. When it seemed that the smaller boy was alright, he offered him some water.

"Thanks." Hinata breathed out slowly and chugged down some of the liquid. Komaeda just smiled at him and took the bottle from his hands.

"Do you want to play?" asked Chiaki while taking out a deck of cards from her backpack.

"Sure." both of the boys replied simultaneously. Hinata looked at Komaeda and grinned. "Get ready to lose, because no one has ever beaten this girl at anything card related."

"I think you're forgetting that girl from the class below. What was her name... Celestia?" the pink-hair pondered.

"She doesn't count. It's like her life calling to be some sort of gambler, so she's perfect at it. I'm talking about normal people." Hinata tried reasoning.

Chiaki just shrugged and started shuffling the cards.

*

"Aaaand I win~"

Hinata looked at the cards in front of him, complete shock written all over his face.

Komaeda had won. Not Chiaki. Komaeda.

The girl congratulated the other boy, but Hinata was just sitting, with his mouth formed as a little 'o'.

'Now that's something you don't see every day.' he shook himself out of his surprise. "It was probably just beginners luck. Let's see you do that again."

"Yeah, it was probably just luck." said Komaeda, scratching the back of his head. His hair looked even more untamed, now that it had been in the open wind. 'It looks really soft, though. I wonder how it would feel- Whoa there! Not going on this track again.' Hinata slapped himself weakly, a blush creeping up on his face. Chiaki glanced at him with a questioning look, but he just waved her off. This was no time to get side tracked, he had a game to win or at least try to do it.

In the end, he didn't win a single round. Komaeda came in first place with the most victories and Chiaki was second, only losing by a small number. The two of them tried to cheer up Hinata and he let it go pretty quickly, since he had already prepared himself for Chiaki. Komaeda, on the other hand, was a complete surprise to him. The boy was a complete mystery and Hinata found himself wanting to unravel it.


	3. Chapter 3

The next few days were relatively quiet. Not many even spoke about the play and there seemed to be a silent agreement that rehearsals would start after the weekend. Hinata was glad that he didn't need to dive head-first into this whole ordeal and actually had time to get ready.

He started to speak with Komaeda during breaks more. It seemed that the boy really lived up to his title and was quite easy to hold interesting conversations with. Hinata was even surprised with himself how he hadn't gotten to know him better during the few years that they had been classmates. Maybe he just had been too engrossed in his own little circle of friends.

Finally Friday came and as the last bell rang everyone got out of school as fast as possible. Nobody wanted to stay there longer than it was needed. The air had been getting colder, but the sun was shining brightly, so it was still nice outside.

Hinata walked back home with Chiaki, since she lived only a few blocks away from him. The girl was talking about an indie RPG that she had heard of and wanted to try out. She also mentioned a new game store opening in the town center.

"And you want to go there, don't you?" Hinata asked her. She nodded and looked at him with that puppy look of hers and the boy already knew that his weekend was set. "Ok, ok, I'll go with you. I know how it's more fun to have some company while going to these kind of things."

"Thanks." she said with a warm smile.

He really didn't mind. Besides, having spent so much time with the pink-haired girl rubbed off on him some of her interests too, so he was also a bit curious. 

"Then I'll meet you tomorrow at two, ok?" Hinata set the time. "I know how you treasure your sleep hours during your free days."

"That's perfect." she said. "Well it's my turn, so bye till tomorrow."

Hinata waved at his friend and turned to walk to his own house.

*

Saturday seemed pretty sunny, so Hinata only took his jacket and phone. He wasn't planning on buying anything and he had also been saving up for a new bike. The boy wouldn't want to buy anything if he didn't have any money; at least that was what he hoped for.

Chiaki met him at her house and they headed for the town center. They lived more at the suburbs and the walk took a while, but neither of them wanted to take a bus and the weather was good enough for walking. 

Chatting the whole way seemed to make the journey faster and the two teens reached their destination in no time. The building was quite big for a game store, but that made Chiaki even more excited. The girl nearly dragged Hinata by his arm through the doors. 

It seemed that every shelve was stacked with every kind of game known to man and then some more. Video games, board games, party games and everything else took up most of the room and there were people of every age looking through them.

"Wow~" he heard a small exhale from his companion. "Isn't this amazing?" she asked him in awe.

"Well it certainly is... big." Hinata tried to convey his feelings. "So what do you want to check out first?"

"...Let's just start from the beginning. I want to see what they have to offer." Chiaki said after a moment of looking around.

"Certainly not a fat wallet." the brunet boy mumbled under his nose.

They spent about two hours just skimming through all of the game selections when Chiaki got a call from her mother, asking for the girl to come back home as soon as possible, since they'd be having guests coming over and she needs all of the help she can get for preparing diner and cleaning up the house. 

"Sorry it got like this." Chiaki apologized. "I didn't know that we'd be having someone over."

"That's no problem." Hinata shrugged his shoulders. "I feel sorrier for you. You were the one, who wanted to come here so badly. Maybe we could return to this place some day after school?"

"That would be perfect." the short girl's face brightened.

"Though I still have a few places to go to, so I won't be able to walk back with you." he said while walking out of the store with Chiaki by his side.

"No worries. Just don't stay out by yourself for too long." she said with a stern face and waving a finger at him.

"Okay mom." Hinata whined, but he couldn't keep up the act and crooked a smile. The girl beside him also let a small grin appear on her face.

They said their goodbyes and Hinata turned to walk further down the road, littered with stores for anything that you'd think of needing. Finally he reached the one that he was looking for. The store wasn't as big as the previous one he had gone to, but it was still moderately sized. There were different kinds of bikes set on display and the boy decided to take some time choosing the one he liked best.

*

After some time spent in the store, Hinata decided it was about time to head home. Stepping out of the building he started walking, not really paying any attention to anything around him.

A small drop landed on his nose. The brunet boy looked up to the sky and to his surprise the earlier clear sky was completely covered in dark clouds.

'Just great.'

The sound of the soft pitter-patter intensified, the drops doubled and soon it was a downpour. Hinata started running to at least get back home quicker. 

'You're a genius. Not checking the prognosis and not even taking any money for the bus. Ahh, at least I hope Chiaki managed to avoid this.'

Now, everyone knows that running on a wet and slippery road is not one of the best ideas a person could have. Frankly, that wasn't a priority for Hinata at the time and while making a short-cut down the stairs leading down a hill to his block, the boy lost his footing at the last step.

Landing face-first into a puddle was one of the painful consequences. Groaning, Hinata steadied himself on his hands and started to get up.

Suddenly the rain stopped drenching him. Hinata looked up only to see a clear umbrella over him and a hand holding it.

"Hinata?" the person asked.

The completely wet and now a bit muddy boy finally stood up and turned to his saviour. His eyes widened a bit when he saw who it was.  
Komaeda was holding his umbrella over both of their heads and looking as surprised as Hinata.

"What are you doing here?" the white-haired boy asked tilting his head to the side.

"Hugging the ground." Hinata dead-panned. When Komaeda just ooh'ed in 'understanding' and the shorter boy weakly slapped his own face. "I fell."

"Why didn't you say so from the start? You really shouldn't lie, Hinata." Komaeda stated. The brunet silently groaned at that. "I see you don't have an umbrella, would you like to use mine? I could walk with you to your house, since I'm in no hurry right now."

"Really?" Hinata asked dumbfounded. He quickly regained his composure. "I live not too far from here, so it would take only about ten minutes."

"That's great, my house is also only a few blocks away, so it's no problem for me." Komaeda chirped.

They started walking down the road, hands brushing from time to time, because the clear umbrella wasn't that big.

"Thanks, you really saved me there." Hinata said while hugging himself. His wet clothes were becoming colder by the second and he was already shivering. 

Komaeda looked at him apologetically. "Still, it's too late."

"At least my whole way back wasn't in the rain. A-a-achoo!" the boy sneezed loudly. "And now it seems that my weekend is set."

"You should really try not to get sick. I wouldn't want to lose my partner." 

"Don't make it out like I'm dying. If worst, I'll only get a cold." Hinata made a face at the other. Komaeda just smiled at him.

"So I never knew that you lived here. It's actually quite close to my own place." the taller teen said.

"I also didn't know that you lived nearby. We probably always took different routes." Hinata replied simply. "Chiaki's house is also close to mine."

"Oh, so we can actually go to and from school together." Komaeda looked at the brunet with a sparkle in his eyes.

"Yeah, sure."

"Great! I'm so glad that you don't mind, Hinata."

"Why would I?" Hinata looked at the white-head with a bit of confusion. "As they say: the more, the merrier."

Komaeda nodded, his face tinted a bit of red and eyes quickly darting away from the other boy. Hinata wasn't sure if it was the cold air or something else. He looked down to himself and noticed that his white shirt was semi-transparent from getting wet. Hinata hugged himself tighter, hoping that their walk wouldn't take long.

They finally reached Hinata's house and Komaeda started to shift his weight from one foot to the other.

"I guess this is it. It was nice meeting you today, Hinata." he said, turning his head a little.

"It really was. I don't know what would have happened to me if you hadn't shown up." the brunet smiled a bit. "But why don't you come in? It's the least I can offer."

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to inconvenience you or your parents."

"My parents aren't home at this time and I'm the one inviting you, so it's definitely no problem."

"If you say so. Then excuse the intrusion." Komaeda said softly, walking through the front door that Hinata had opened. The brunet followed him and took the umbrella to hang it to dry in the bathroom.

"Could you wait a moment? I'm just going to change and get some towels."

Komaeda nodded and started looking around. "You can sit in the living room." Hinata said as the other walked towards the sofa. "I'll be right back." the brunet shouted, half-way up the stairs up to his room.

He grabbed a new set of clothes and hung the drenched ones to dry. The boy tried to change as quickly as possible and stumbled on one foot, while trying to put on a pair of jeans.

'Why am I so frantic all of a sudden?'

He finally managed to dress and tried to compose himself in front of the mirror. His hair was sticking to his face, though that one strand, that always wanted to defy gravity, was still high up in the air. Hinata had long since given up on taming it and now he even enjoyed it a little. It made him different from the others, though one of the kids from the class bellow had a very similar hair condition. The first time Souda had seen the kid, he joked that perhaps they had been long-lost brothers. 

Hinata went to the bathroom to get a towel for his hair. Maybe Komaeda would also need one, so he took some extra.

The white-head boy was sitting in the exact same spot that Hinata had left him and seemed to be really tense.

"Hey, sorry for taking so long." the brunet called. Komaeda jumped a little from his seat and quickly turned to him.

"No, no. It's no problem at all." he said looking nervous. "But I should probably go, since I know I'm only taking up your precious time."

"Komaeda, you're already here, so there's no turning back now." Hinata said. He threw the towel to the other. "Here, you can dry your hair. Sorry it got wet; I guess the umbrella really wasn't big enough for two."

Komaeda caught the towel and stared at it for a few seconds. "Thanks." he said weakly and started to rub it on his head. Hinata couldn't help himself but stare a bit. Then he remembered that his own hair also needed attention and started to dry it roughly. Once he was finished, the brunet left it hanging on his shoulders, not bothering to put it away. Komaeda hanged his on the back of the sofa and glanced at Hinata. The other caught his look and also stared for a moment, forgetting what exactly he had wanted to say. 'Oh, right.' 

"So do you want some tea to warm up?" he finally asked.

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble." the white-haired boy answered, a tint of red colouring his cheeks.

"Sure. You can wait here or come with me to the kitchen if you want to." Hinata said turning his back to Komaeda and starting to walk out of the room.

"I'll come. Maybe I could help too." the taller one quickly stood up from his seat.

They both entered the kitchen and Hinata put up some water to boil. "You can choose what you want to drink, I'll have the same. Everything's in the lowest cupboard." he told the other while fetching two cups.

Komaeda seemed to quickly adapt to a change of scene and didn't seem as confused anymore. He navigated through the room as if it was his own and picked a couple of black tea-bags. 

'Seems like I don't need to tell him to feel like at home.' Hinata pondered, leaning on the counter and watching the other.

They poured the hot water and went back to the living room with steaming cups in both of their hands. 

Flopping on the sofa next to Komaeda, Hinata turned to him. "Do you want to watch a movie or something?" he asked.

"Okay, but you choose what you want this time. I feel as if you're going along with everything that I pick." Komaeda stated.

"Fine, then we can watch a horror movie." Hinata grinned evilly. "If that's not too scary for you~" Komaeda just shrugged at that.

Hinata should have really seen this coming, since he knew that he wasn't the toughest one when it came to horror movies. Somehow playing those kinds of games didn't have that much of an effect on him as watching it acted out on screen. He liked to think it was because he played so much of them with Chiaki, but didn't watch that many movies. With all this knowledge he knew that he tended to sometimes over-react and start clinging to the closest person to him. That had been embarrassing the first time he had been sleeping over at Chiaki's and they had decided to watch something scary to liven things up a bit. The girl had to hold his hand through half of the film and then later, when they went to sleep, she had to keep reassuring the boy that it was all made up and that no ghost or monster would come during the night. Since then Hinata tended to avoid horror movies as much as possible and hell if he knew why he had suggested to suddenly watch one with Komaeda. 

After twenty minutes of the film the shorter boy already had his arms around the other's shoulders and was trying to hide his face, while still watching the movie. Even though he was scared, he was still interested in the story.

One thing, though, Hinata hadn't anticipated and that was Komaeda's hands wrapped around his shoulders, holding onto him equally as tightly. The white-head boy was also shivering and his face looked like a mirror version of Hinata's. Both of them were clinging to each other, but neither looking away from the TV screen.

'At least I won't be the only one embarrassed after all of this.' a small thought came to Hinata sometime during the movie. It was actually really comforting to have Komaeda next to him. 'It'd probably be the same with anyone though, right? Well, okay, not anyone. Someone like Kuzuryuu would probably punch me in the face if I even tried to get this close.' Still, Komaeda was warm and his body heat helped Hinata from shivering from the cold. Now he was only shivering from fear.

The film's end wasn't as intense as the beginning and Hinata caught himself relaxing and starting to nod off. 'A few minutes won't do much harm.' he thought to himself, already slipping from consciousness.

*

Slowly blinking his eyes, Hinata woke up to a completely dark room, except for the TV emitting a faint glow. The movie had long since ended and the digital clock below the screen showed that it was already after 10 p.m.

Hinata lifted his head and turned to look on what he had been resting it. To his surprise, Komaeda had also fallen asleep and had his head on the brunet's shoulder. A blush wandered on Hinata's face as he realized how close they were. He started to think of how to slip from this situation without waking up the other and making him notice, but it was too late as Komaeda also stirred and sleepily opened his eyes. He slowly turned his face to Hinata and only after a few moments did he seem to realize where he was. The taller teen abruptly moved further away on the sofa and it seemed like his face was also plastered with red, though it was hard to tell in the darkness.

"I'm so so so sorry, Hinata." he quickly started apologizing. "I didn't mean to fall asleep on you."

"No no, it's also my fault. I fell asleep too." Hinata tried to take half of the blame. "I guess both of us were more tired than we thought."

"Oh." Komaeda just breathed out.

"And it's pretty late now. Will you be able to go home or do you want to stay over?" 

"I should really go home. I've already spent more time here than I had planned, though it wasn't bad." the white-haired boy said with a small smile.

"In that case, will you be able to walk home by yourself? It's already dark, even if you do live nearby. Maybe you should call your parents." Hinata wondered out loud.

"It's no problem; I'll get home by myself." Komaeda replied simply, though his eyes seemed a bit sad. "It was really fun here, Hinata. I hope we'll be able to spend more time together later." he said, putting on his shoes.

"Yeah, it was... nice. I guess I'll see you later." Hinata replied, one shoulder leaning on the wall.

"Bye bye." Komaeda waved at him and stepped out of the house. The other also waved with a soft smile on his face.

'Now this day was something I really hadn't expected.' Hinata thought to himself, closing the doors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there was a comment asking me if Komaeda will entirely lose his crazy persona and for this story I think that he will. Well I'm not quite sure yet, since this is still a work in progress, but in this universe he doesn't have dementia or lymphoma (that would just mean that he'd die pretty quickly and it wouldn't be a happy story anymore, now would it?). Maybe he'll still sometimes act a bit strange, but not as severe as in the game.


	4. Chapter 4

Sunday morning Hinata woke up barely even managing to breathe through his stuffed nose. His throat felt as if he had been eating sandpaper and his body felt like it weighted a ton.

'I guess this isn't surprising considering what happened yesterday.' he thought to himself, feeling too lazy to get out of his comfy bed. 'Maybe I should just wait until mom comes looking for me. It is a Sunday after all, so I'm in no hurry.'

The boy's mother did eventually come to check in on him after some time and the moment she saw him looking lifeless in his bed she started lecturing him about getting sick in this kind of weather and not being ready for it. Hinata just groaned and asked his mom if she could bring any medicine and perhaps some breakfast. He didn't feel like moving any time soon. She deflated a bit after his plea and just gave him a small smile in return while nodding.

Hinata spent the whole day just laying in his bed or getting up to watch some TV in the living room, bundled up in warm blankets and a cup of hot ginger tea.

The brunet didn't feel as awful as he did in the morning, though he still had a fairly high temperature and a box of tissues next to him. His mom and dad sometimes came to see if he needed anything, but mostly they just stayed out of his way, probably just not wanting to get sick themselves.

In the evening Hinata decided that he'd definitely not be going to school the next day. He still felt dizzy and wasn't able to concentrate on anything, so homework was also forgotten for the time being.

The next morning was mostly similar to the previous one and Hinata's predictions of not going to school were confirmed. The boy looked at the clock on his bedside table and it showed 7:30 a.m., so he just turned on his other side and went back to sleep.

*

When he woke up it was already mid-day and the sun was shining brightly even through the closed curtains. The teenager felt a lot better and even managed to finally breathe through his nose. Hinata really hoped that whatever sickness this was, it would go away quickly, since he didn't want to miss too much and then having to catch up with everyone on schoolwork.

As he was thinking that, the boy heard his doorbell ringing. 'Who could that be?' Hinata got up from his bed and draped the blanket around his shoulders. 

When he opened the front door, the sick boy was greeted by a sight of two pink-heads. Chiaki gave him a small wave and Souda had his usual grin on.

"What's up, man? Decided to skip school, right?" the yellow-dressed boy asked with a coo. Hinata just stepped from the door to let them in. "Well, I can't blame you. It was boring as ever." Souda still continued talking while the three of them walked to Hinata's room upstairs.

"He's sick, Souda... Can't you see that?" Chiaki said softly.

"Oh right! Now that you mention it, he does seem a little out of it." 

"Yeah, I am a bit sick, though it's nothing much." Hinata answered, flopping down on his bed. "I should be fine by tomorrow."

"That's great then." Chiaki smiled and sat down on his work chair.

"Either way, we came here to tell you what you've missed out on and what you'll have to do." Souda took a seat on his table.

"Oh, so it didn't matter that your friend was gone and might had possibly been on his death-bed?" Hinata said with sarcasm lacing his words and a smirk.

"Not really."

"Hey!"

"Chill out, man. Of course we were somewhat worried, since you're not the type to skip. Now, here's what you missed: we all started rehearsing and Togami was fucking pissed that you didn't show up. He kept rambling about 'irresponsible kids' and how no one cares to even spare a thought about other people these days. I suggest you learn twice as much as you had to, so that he would be pleased when you come back. You did learn at least the first pages, right?"

'Oh shit. I had completely forgotten about that damned play.' Hinata silently panicked to himself.

"Ummm, suuure." he gave a crooked smile and fiddled with the bed sheets. Chiaki gave him a look that clearly said she didn’t believe in anything he just said, but the girl stayed silent. Souda seemed to have missed the obvious signs and just gave the other boy a thumbs-up.

"Great! Now for the more interesting things. Saionji said that she'd be bringing our costumes tomorrow, so that we could try them on and look if any changes are needed."

"All the changes I need are a pair of pants instead of a frilly dress." Hinata whined.

"This is gonna be awesome, dude. I'll definitely take some pics." Souda gave him a shit-eating grin.

"...I'm also thinking of taking a camera with me tomorrow. For... purposes." Chiaki spoke up.

Hinata had nothing left for him to do except groan at his 'friends' statements.

Chiaki and Souda stayed for a bit longer, just chatting and trying to liven up Hinata's day. That said, Souda was still mostly the only one who talked, since Chiaki seemed sleepy as usual and Hinata didn't have enough energy to really retort to most of the things the other said. The two left after an hour, to give the sick boy some rest.

As Hinata was about to close his eyes for a short nap, he heard a few quiet bumps from his bedroom door. Thinking it was probably his mother back from work, the boy let out a small 'mhm' to indicate that he was awake.

He did not expect to see a tuft of white hair slowly poking out from the slightly ajar door. Komaeda glanced at the direction of Hinata's bed and his eyes lit up.

"Hello, Hinata. I'm sorry for coming here so unexpectedly." he said while trying to close the doors without making much sound.

"...H-hi." the brunet said, a bit in a daze. "Wait, how did you come in here?" he quickly turned back to his normal self.

"Ah, your mother let me in. I didn't want to bother you much, it's just that I forgot my umbrella the day I was here and since you didn't show up today, I thought maybe something had happened. It seems I was correct." he smiled and took a seat on the chair that had been previously occupied by Chiaki.

"Is that so? Well, at least someone was worried." Hinata let out an exaggerated sigh.

"I really was." Komaeda's cheeks gained a slight pink colour. "I thought that it was probably from that time, when you said that if worst, you'd get sick after spending so long in the rain. It really was my fault for not getting to you in time..."

"You know it's not like that. It was completely my fault for being so forgetful." Hinata gave the other a weak smile. "I really don't have that much energy to start arguing about this again, so let's just forget about it. I'll probably be fine by tomorrow, so it's not a big deal."

"O-okay." Komaeda just bowed his head and Hinata thought he slightly resembled a little puppy. After looking at him for a few moments the brunet noticed that his hair had a few pink stains. 'Why the hell am I seeing so much pink hair today? Is the fever getting to me?' Deciding it wasn't just his blurry vision playing tricks on him, Hinata decided to inquire the other about this.

"Hey, why does your hair have pink patches?" he asked, pointing at the most visible part.

"Ahaha, I was hoping you wouldn't notice it." Komaeda scratched the back of his head a bit. "Some of us were helping with the decorations today and it seems it was just my luck that Tsumiki got her feet tangled in some chords while carrying paint. You can see the results of that."

"Why would we even need that much pink paint in this play? I thought it was supposed to be the medieval ages where these kinds of colours weren't so popular." Hinata gave him a puzzled look.

"I'm not really sure myself. I think she was actually carrying it for a friend in another class. I heard that they'd be doing something that involved quite a lot of that colour."

The sick boy just gave the other a look that clearly said: 'That much neon pink? What are they planning on showing - A day in Barbie's life?', but he didn't speak up.

"Well, anyway, I wasn't planning on disturbing you, but since I'm already here and you're awake, would you mind if we practiced, if only for a little while?" Komaeda asked shyly. "I know that you're probably not feeling that well and you don't want to waste any time on something like my wishes. It's just that I'd really want to see what it's like to act with another person and Togami wasn't in that good of a mood today, since you didn't come. I think he'd really appreciate if we learned our parts as quickly as possible." he gave Hinata a hopeful look.

"Aahh, okay, but the problem is that I didn't learn any of my lines." the brunet gave a crooked half-smile and crossed his legs in a lotus position. He really felt like stretching after so much time spent laying in his bed.

"Well, since you weren't present in today's rehearsal, Saionji took the liberty of teaching me how to dance. Our characters will be doing that quite early in Togami's story and I knew next to nothing about it." Komaeda stood up and put out his hand towards Hinata. "If you want, I can teach you what I learned from her."

"Sure." Hinata took the outstretched hand and helped himself off the bed.

"Are you certain that you're feeling well enough for this?" the white-head asked in a concerned tone, not letting go of the other's hand. "I wouldn't want you to collapse."

"I'm fine. I was already planning on going back to school tomorrow." Hinata huffed out. "Now are we starting or what?"

"If you say so." Komaeda smiled and put the smaller teen's left hand on his shoulder and curled his own over the other's waist.

Hinata felt his face getting hotter and he wasn't sure if it was from the fever or the close proximity of the two bodies.

"I didn't learn that much, but first of all, we should match our tempos. We have to act like a single person and follow what our partner is doing. If I put out my right leg, then so do you." Komaeda did as he said and waited for Hinata to do the same. "There will be music, so it'll be easier to make the dance moves in time with it. For now let's just try to slowly mimic each other."

Hinata tried to pay as much attention as possible and he also tried to ignore, that they were touching quite intimately, as much as he could. He felt a headache creeping up, but quickly brushed it off. 

Everything was completely fine until a swirl came up at the end. Komaeda was holding Hinata's right hand and let go of his waist to let the other spin around their hands. As the brunet was doing so, his vision blurred out and he suddenly felt very faint. His body gave out and he would have fallen down on the floor if it wasn't for the taller boy's quick reaction.

Komaeda grabbed the other by his waist again and Hinata felt his face pressed up at the white head's warm chest.

"Hinata, are you okay?!" Komaeda started panicking. He sat the sick boy down on his bed and plopped beside him. The taller boy brushed of a few hair strands on Hinata's forehead and put his palm over it to check if the other had a high temperature.

"I'm fine." Hinata said weakly. "I just got dizzy." Komaeda's cool hand felt very soothing and he involuntary leaned into the touch.

"Well you're burning up, so I don't think that it's the best description of 'feeling fine'. It really was a bad idea to dance while you're still unwell." Komaeda fretted.

"It was fine until the end."

"I really shouldn't have suggested it." the other ignored what he was saying. "Lay down, I'll get you some water and maybe some medicine." Komaeda gently pushed Hinata down by his shoulders onto his pillow, stood up and headed for the door.

He came back in a few moments and Hinata was a bit surprised how the other managed to get around his house so fast. Komaeda sat back down on the bed and gave him a cup of water and a few pills. "Your mother said that these should help." he said a little out of breath.

"Thanks." the sick boy sat up on his bed and gladly took the offered items. He gulped down the pills and set the cup on the bedside table.

"I can see that you're still feeling sick, so I'll take my leave. You should rest in peace and I'll be only disturbing it." Komaeda once again stood up from the bed.

"There you go again with making it sound like I'm dying." Hinata let out a small hoarse laugh.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." the taller boy clasped his hands over his mouth in a childish matter. "I wasn't even thinking about what I was saying. I really am the lowest kind."

"Don't worry. I guess I'll see you on Tuesday?" the brunet waved it off.

"Yes, I do hope you'll be feeling better." Komaeda put down his hands and smiled a bit. "Goodbye until tomorrow."

"See ya."

Komaeda turned on his heel and left through the door, trying to close it as quietly as possible. Hinata plopped his head on the pillow and felt his eyelids growing heavier by the second. He never did get the nap he was planning on.

*

When Hinata woke up it was already nearly time to be getting up for school. His 'short' nap had extended to a full night's sleep, but the boy felt as good as ever. His throat and nose felt fine and his head didn't start spinning when he got out of bed. The only thing Hinata felt now was intense hunger, since the last tine he had eaten was in the middle of yesterday.

The brunet boy got up fully ready. He felt his energy coming back to him and Hinata decided that today was going to be a good day.

He had been wrong.

The moment he stepped into the classroom, Togami approached him and started interrogating about his sick day. After that, Hinata had to explain himself why he hadn't learnt any of his lines and the blond was starting to look really irritated, but when the shorter boy mentioned that he did learn his dance, Togami's anger seemed to subdue. He just muttered that the other should still memorize his script, but at least he hadn't been lazing around doing nothing. Hinata silently thanked Komaeda for making him rehearse at least that part.

But his troubles didn't end just there. After class was over, Saionji announced that the costumes were ready and everyone had to try theirs on. The small statured girl started shuffling through the big box that she had on her table and called out her classmate's name when she found their outfit. 

An evil smile appeared on her face when she took hold of something yellow. "Oh big brother Hinata~ here's yours." she turned to him and waved the dress in front of her. "I think I got all the measurements perfectly, but you still have to try it on." Saionji winked at the boy, whose face was starting to look paler by the second. "Just in case~"

"Could I not? You did say you got the measurements perfectly." Hinata tried to bargain himself out of the situation.

"Oh man up!" came Koizumi's voice as she was inspecting a hat in her arms. "Saionji told you to dress up, so do it. You'll have to eventually, so who cares if it's sooner or later." 

Hinata just slumped down in his seat and took the dress from the blonde girl, who was waving it in front of his face.

"By the way, why were you the one who taught Komaeda our dance? I thought you were a traditional Japanese dancer and this was far from it." he said while taking the clothes out of a see-trough plastic package.

"For your information, I had to learn all sorts of dancing styles." the small girl puffed out her cheeks. "It's not as easy as you think. I don't sit around all day doing nothing, unlike some people."

"Right, well thanks anyway. I hope you can teach me too." Hinata tried to ignore the other's mocking answer.

"Sure, but only if you ask nicely." Saionji grinned and strutted back to Koizumi.

Some people left for the bathroom to get changed, but most stayed in the classroom. Hinata took off his shirt and tried wrestling himself into the yellow and blue dress. He felt that he'd tear something quickly if he didn't get any help soon, while he had his head and one of his arms stuck inside. Suddenly the boy felt a pair of arms helping him guide his arms through the sleeves and when he popped his head out through the neck hole, he saw Chiaki standing in front of him with a small smile on her face.

"...I saw that you were struggling, so I came over."

Hinata nodded thankfully and noticed that the girl was already in her outfit. She had a yellowish-green tunic with a few patches on her elbows, a bright green hat and brown pants. Every dwarf had the same kind of yellow shoes and they looked like a mix of socks and ballet flats. She looked a bit silly, but somehow it fitted the girl.

Chiaki took out from the box on Hinata's table a pair of gold-coloured shoes with a little ribbon at the top. "Aww, these look cute." Then the girl rummaged through the plastic package a bit more and fished out a larger crimson bow. "...And this one is for the hair I guess? Though I don't see a wig in here, so you'll probably have your normal hairdo."

Hinata let out a sigh of relief. At least he wasn't going to be forced into a wig. He took of his shoes and put on the golden ones. They didn't have a high heel, just a bit of a platform, so that was another plus.

"Aren't you going to take off your pants before putting those on?" a familiar voice came and when Hinata turned to face the one who said this, he was greeted by a smiling Komaeda. Chiaki covered her mouth, but the brunet could still hear her giggling.

"Nice choice of words and no." he glanced at the girl who was trying to stop her laughter. "The dress is long enough to cover all of my legs, so there's no way I'm taking my pants off." Hinata said as-a-matter-of-factly and then added 'at least for now' in a whisper. He proceeded to put the red bow in his hair and then turned at the other two. "How do I look?"

The pink haired girl let out a silent whistle and then made her hands look like pistols with her index fingers. "Looking good, ma’am." Komaeda let out a soft laugh and then inspected the brunet himself.

After a few moments of looking deep in thought he just shrugged his shoulders. "Well at least it is good for you that you're not wearing a miniskirt, though I must say, I'm a bit interested in how that would look like also." he grinned.

Hinata lightly smacked the other on his head while avoiding the small crown that was somehow balancing itself in that bush of hair.

"Thank you both for the notes. I'll make sure to keep them in mind." the teen said in a sarcastic tone. He only then fully saw how Komaeda's outfit looked like. The boy had the same colour scheme as his – blue, yellow, white and red. He wore a blue tunic with a belt to keep it in place, baby blue pants with high boots, puffed out white sleeves and a red cape. He had a few golden streaks at the end of his clothes and a sword by his hips.

“Just don’t point that too much.” Hinata said while looking at the sword.

“Oh this?” Komaeda took it out of the scabbard and swung a little.

“Nooo, I meant something entirely different.” The brunet retorted without really thinking. Chiaki seemed to have calmed down, but as soon as he said this, the girl burst out into another fit of giggles.

Komaeda’s face turned a few shades of red and he quickly put the sword back in its place. “I-it’s plastic, so it won’t do much harm…”

“That’s good to hear.” Hinata breathed out a small laugh himself and turned to Chiaki. “And you, calm down. Didn’t sleep all night again and now everything’s funny?”

“Something like that.” The girl answered vaguely. She let her gaze wander about the two boys and then she smirked a bit. “You both look nice… really fit each other.”

“Don’t make it sound weird.” Hinata blushed a little. Chiaki just hummed and winked at him.

“What’s gotten into her today?” Komaeda leaned a bit and whispered to the shorter one’s ear.

“I have no idea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand here we see Chiaki getting the shipper syndrome. I always found it funny that in my class the guys are actually stronger shippers than girls. If there is even a slightest possibility that two friends are acting a bit closer than usual, they will jump to cunclusions immediately and will whisper and coo all sorts of stuff to the possible forming relationship~  
> So a little funny thing happened while writing this chapter. I had it planned out a few weeks ago, but somehow I managed to get sick myself on a Sunday, because of rain related problems on Saturday. Now I guess the only thing I lacked was a good looking white haired guy to come and visit me. Sadly, the only visit I got was from a fever...


	5. Chapter 5

After everyone's outfits were ready and fixed, the rehearsals began every day. Hinata finally learned some of his lines and tried to at least look enthusiastic while acting. Actually, after finally getting into it, the play didn't seem as ridiculous and torturous to the boy. He wouldn't have admitted that it was fun, but at least it was tolerable.

On Friday Chiaki came up to him after the last bell had rung. The girl seemed enthusiastic about something. Hinata just raised a brow at her.

"...Hey, so I'm going to cut it right to the point. Are you free today and tomorrow?" Chiaki said unusually fast.

"Ummm, yeah, I think so." Hinata replied a bit confused. "Why?"

"Well... my parents are going away for the weekend to visit some distant family members or something... I'm not entirely certain. Anyway, I asked them if I could stay at home and they were okay with that..." the pink head said, acting more like her normal self again. "...So you know what that means."

"Free space?" Hinata said while heading out of the classroom.

"Yup. I'm throwing a mini-party. Well... maybe it's more like a get together and a sleep-over. Do you want to come?" Chiaki asked and already had her puppy-look fixed.

"You can stop that." Hinata grinned at her. "Of course I want to come. Is that even a question? Though I do have one - who else is coming? Because there's no way you'd be calling it a party with me and you alone."

"You're right." the girl winked at him. "There's also going to be Souda, Tsumiki, Ibuki and Komaeda."

"Sounds like a blast, but I'm not too sure about Tsumiki. Is she the kind of person who likes parties?" 

"...She said she wanted to come when I mentioned it. Besides, she's fun." Chiaki shrugged her shoulders. 

"So when are we meeting?" Hinata asked and fixed the strap of his backpack.

"Come to my place at about five thirty. You can help me with the preparations then."

The boy sighed. "Of course, you wouldn't let go of an opportunity to make your job easier."

"Only because it's you." the girl smiled at him.

"I feel honoured."

*

As soon as Hinata got home he told his mom that he'd be going to Chiaki's place and that he'd stay there for the night. His parents were used to him doing this, so he got the permission rather quickly. 

When there were fifteen minutes left, the boy started getting ready to go. He waved his mom goodbye and strutted down the street. Chiaki lived quite close, so he got there in no time.

The pink haired girl greeted him at the door and pointed at the living room.

"...You'll have to help me with the snacks. There won't be any 'normal' food," she air-quoted. "So don't expect anything."

"Never did." Hinata smirked. 

"Souda and Ibuki said that they'll get the drinks ready, so you won't need to..."

The two of them fiddled with a few things and soon the first ring came from the door. Hinata went to open them and it was Tsumiki. The girl looked like she was very nervous and she stuttered a small 'hello'.

"Hey, Tsumiki." the boy smiled at her. "It's great to see you, but you should really relax. This is a 'party', not a funeral and everyone knows each other."

"Y-y-yeah, you're right..." Tsumiki managed a small smile. Chiaki came around the corner to greet her and they headed to the living room.

Soon after the nervous girl came Komaeda. He waved enthusiastically with a huge smile and looked pretty giddy. Hinata just ushered him inside and looked around if Ibuki or Souda were near. Seeing nothing he closed the door and walked to where everyone else was. Chiaki and Tsumiki were talking about something and Komaeda was standing alone, looking around the room. Hinata decided that it wouldn't hurt to at least make some small talk with the other boy and went towards him.

"Hey, so is this the first time you're here?" the brunet asked.

"Uh, yeah. I mean, I didn't talk that much with either you or Nanami, but I guess it's changed a bit, right?" Komaeda smiled sheepishly. "Actually I never really wanted to intrude on you, since the two of you were always together. I hope I'm not doing that right now..." The brunet boy shook his head. "Oh, then that's great." Komaeda smiled. "Though I have been wondering - are you and Nanami in a relationship?" the white head cocked his head.

"W-w-what?" Hinata's face turned bright red. "No, it's nothing like that between us. We're just very good friends."

"Really?" Komaeda looked genuinely surprised. "I could have sworn..."

"There. Is. Nothing. Between. Us." 

"Okay okay, got it." the taller boy raised his hands in a defensive position. When it seemed that Hinata had regained his cool the other tried to pry more. "Not Nanami, so who then?"

"There's no one." the brunet pouted. "And why are you so keen about this?"

"No particular reason." Komaeda smirked a bit, though it seemed a bit more because he had made an inside joke with himself than at what Hinata had said. "Well actually I-"

The teen was cut off by an incessant ringing of the doorbell. Everyone in the room flinched and turned towards the doors. Chiaki clapped her hands over her ears and slumped over to them to let in the new guest. She unlocked the doors and slowly tried opening them, but whoever was on the other side slammed them open and Chiaki only managed to back away in the nick of time.

"Heeeeeey everybody! The lovable and adorable Ibuki is here!" the girl announced her presence. Right beside her stood Souda and he was holding a huge bag. The boy's face looked really strained, but he still managed a grin. Hinata headed over to him and took one strap to help the pink head carry the bag and the two of them put it near the sofa in the living room.

"So what did you get?" Chiaki asked when everyone was inside.

"We got everything!" Ibuki grinned and put both of her hands on her hips. "Ibuki knows what all parties need; she's like the guru of having a good time."

"And don't ask how we got this stuff. I don't want to talk about it." Souda shuddered. Ibuki started giggling and the boy sent her a dirty look.

"Don't hide it 'pretty boy'~ that stuff was hilarious. I mean when that guy said humphr-" the excited girl was quickly silenced by Souda's hand clapped over her mouth.

"Not. A. Word." the boy hissed with his cheeks tainted soft pink.

Ibuki wrestled out of his hold and stuck out her tongue at him. "All right, grumpy-pants. Guess this story will only be between us and the guy at the counter."

"It better be." Souda seemed to deflate a bit.

"So what did you get?" Chiaki tried asking again.

Souda immediately turned back to his usual self and grinned. "Oh we got everything, whatever taste you have, it'll probably be an option." he opened the bag and started lining up bottles on the table.

"Wow, you actually managed to get alcohol?" Hinata said a little impressed. "But that doesn't change the fact that we're still underage."

"Dude, you're almost eighteen, who even cares? These days everyone drinks, I'm surprised that you haven't. Don't tell me you just stand by the walls at parties and drink orange juice from red cups."

"I do not." 

"Then prove it." Souda smirked.

"Fine, what do you want me to try?" Hinata was starting to get irritated.

"Maybe you should just try beer at first." Komaeda interrupted. "It's not that strong as to say whiskey or vodka."

"I can take stronger stuff."

"Then please, go on." the pink haired boy continued to tease. Chiaki sat on the sofa and was silently observing the unfolding scene. She seemed really interested in what Hinata would do and Ibuki looked like she was cheering on the brunet with her hands pumped up in the air and loudly whistling.

Hinata was getting tired of this and wanted to get it over as soon as possible, so he took the nearest bottle to him, opened it and chugged down a mouthful. The drink was bitter and burned his throat. He looked at what he had poured into his mouth and the label read rum. The brunet scowled, but didn't say anything. He turned to the others and smirked, as if saying 'see?'.

Souda whistled. "Guess I was wrong."

Komaeda smiled at Hinata and then looked around a little. "Hey, has anyone seen Tsumiki? She was here, wasn't she?"

"...She's in the kitchen. Said she wanted to make something and took a few bottles from your bag." Chiaki replied. Right at that moment a loud bang came from the kitchen, followed by several crashing sounds and a small yelp. Everyone in the room stood up from their sitting positions and looked at each other. With a silent agreement they all headed to where the clumsy girl was.

The kitchen looked as if a war had been going on there just a few moments ago and Tsumiki was sprawled out on the floor. Chiaki shook her head and muttered "No one lets her in here again, okay?" and then bent down to help her friend up.

"Wow, what were you making?" Ibuki whipped her finger on the wall, which was splashed with all the colours of the rainbow, and licked it. "Yuuuuum~" She then turned to a wall that was completely covered in neon pink and proceeded to taste it too.

"Ibuki, I really don't think you should be doing that. You don't know what it is." Hinata tried reasoning with her, but the girl completely ignored him.

"I-i-it's nothing, really... At least I don't think it's poisonous." Tsumiki replied weakly, getting up from the floor. "But if it is, I'm really really sorry! I'll take full responsibility..." 

"Uuuh, you guys can go, I'll help her finish up here... Think of something we could do." Chiaki waved off the other four.

*

When both of the girls came back and Tsumiki had finally stopped apologizing, Ibuki stood up in the middle of the room with a stern look on her face.

"We talked it over and Ibuki decided that the first thing we should do is get some cards!" she grinned with her teeth showing.

"Cards? We didn't say anything about cards." Souda seemed baffled. "And why them? There's plenty of more interesting stuff to do."

"Becaaauuse," Ibuki waved her finger in front of his face. "We can play games with penalties~ something like a strip game with the added task for the loser of chugging down a glass of whatever the winner chooses."

"...That actually doesn't sound that bad." Chiaki said while putting her index finger to her face and seemed that she was thinking it over.

"Of course you'd agree, miss gamer-girl." Hinata huffed. He already felt a little light-headed and felt like answering to everything as sarcastically as possible. 

"Well let’s at least try it." Komaeda tried to calm the situation down. Chiaki nodded and went to the other room to get the cards. When she came back, the game started immediately. Ibuki had somehow managed to put on music while no one was looking and now they had some background sound.

The game started out slow, but after thirty minutes Hinata, Souda and Ibuki were already down half of their clothing and already feeling tipsy. Ibuki was missing all of her small accessories and was left with a shirt, a skirt and stockings, and no one could tell if she was actually drunk or not, since the girl acted as her usual self. Souda looked similar, though he had already lost his shirt and Hinata had still managed to keep both that and his pants, while silently thanking himself for putting on more clothes this time than what little he usually wore. Tsumiki had her apron missing and some of the bandages. Komaeda had only lost once and the only thing lying next to him was his jacket and Chiaki was still fully clothed, but nobody was even surprised. She put down another card and looked at Hinata with a smile.

"Oh come on! Again?!" the boy said irritated.

"Maybe you'll be luckier next time." Komaeda smiled apologetically.

"I'll be luckier if you lose next time." Hinata tried to snap back.

"Ooooh, so Hinata wants to see shirtless Komaeda that much.” Ibuki winked at him. Komaeda's face became coloured in a few shades of red and the brunet next to him only then seemed to realize that his retort came out more wrong than he had intended. "You know what I meant." he said weakly. Ibuki smirked and exchanged a look with Chiaki, who was already holding out a cup of something that she had chosen for Hinata to take. The boy sighed, took the drink and poured it down his throat. Then he proceeded to take off his shirt and put it in the growing pile of discarded clothing. At least it wasn't cold, though he wasn't sure if the room or all of the drinks were making him feel that way.

After Tsumiki had finally managed to gain a win and most surprisingly over Chiaki, Souda announced that this game was getting boring and he was losing too much - he only had his boxers left. He was already reaching for his shirt, but Ibuki grabbed his hand and shook her head.

"Hold it! Every game is a continuation of the other, so the clothes stay for the whole night."

"We never agreed on that!" the pink head protested.

"Then let’s ask the host." Ibuki turned to Chiaki. The other girl nodded and Souda let out a groan while the musician pumped her fist in the air. "That said, the best choice for the next activity is a little good ol' singing, since everyone got their throats loose."

"You really want to listen to a bunch of drunken teenagers singing badly?" Hinata raised a brow at her.

"Yeah!" the girl said excitedly.

Chiaki raised a hand to get the attention to her. "...Maybe it would be more fun to also add a twist to this?"

"What kind of *twist*?" Souda asked. "Definitely not anything involving clothes, coz I ain't got much left." he wiggled his hands around himself to prove his point.

"Not really... More like how or what you'll be singing." Chiaki tried explaining. "Let’s say we write a bunch of tasks or adjectives on small papers. Then when it's your turn, draw them and see what you got. Maybe you'll have to sing really dramatically or maybe you'll have to do it while pretending to be a pop idol."

"That actually doesn't sound too bad." Souda crossed his arms nodded. "And what about which song you'll have to sing?"

"The others will choose it for you." the pink haired girl replied and started handing out papers and markers. "Just don't write anything too extreme or impossible... Okay?"

When everyone was done she collected the tasks and put them in a hat. "Now... Who wants to be first?"

"Oooh oooh, Ibuki!!!" the girl leapt from her seat and reached her hand into the hat. "Aaaaaaaand Ibuki got 'aggressively'. This is gonna be perfect for her new song ‘Congratulations On That Baby, But Who The Hell’s The Dad?’ . Now prepare to be amazed." She took her guitar and strummed a little on the strings.

"Wait, when did you bring this with you?" asked Hinata with a doubtful look on his face.

Ibuki shrugged at this, took a deep breath and made an angry expression. She then proceeded to play a loud tune and started singing her whole heart out. The music was loud, but it couldn't compare to the musician's voice, which rang through the entire house.

Komaeda and Hinata exchanged looks which said 'how the hell does she even come up with this stuff?' while having their hands clapped on their ears as not to get any hearing disorders.

After a few more minutes of the obnoxious, yet somehow appealing music Ibuki strummed the last chords and when the music faded out she bowed to her audience. Everyone started clapping and cheering.

After the colourful haired girl next in line was Chiaki. She stood up, reached into the hat and pulled out a small paper. After reading it to herself she announced it to the rest: "Sing a duet with whomever you want to." she looked over her sitting friends and her gaze set on Tsumiki. The pink haired girl silently nodded and helped the other up. Tsumiki looked more relaxed and even a bit giddy, so she didn't object. Both of them stood up and faced the TV screen, which had the karaoke program turned on and waiting, since Ibuki didn't have any need for it. They took the microphones and waited for Hinata to choose the song, because he was the only one who knew how to use it. A cute and upbeat tune started playing and as soon as the words appeared on the screen the girls turned to each other, nodded and started singing with big smiles on their faces. The song was about the wonders of candy and both of the girls seemed to enjoy it. Though they didn't move around as much as Ibuki, they still seemed to be in character with the song.

Because both of the singers had similar voices, the duet sounded nice and it seemed to end way too early. The two of them also got a round of applause and Ibuki kept screaming how adorable everything was.

Next in line was Souda and the almost naked boy proudly stood up and took his task from the hat.

"So I have to sing a 'Taylor Swift song'. Are you guys fucking serious?"

"And you want us to choose a song about a princess, aren't I right?" Hinata smirked at him. Now it was the brunet's time to get back at his friend. Souda just sighed and seemed to except his fate. He waved for them to put up something and took the microphone.

When the music started he abruptly turned back to the others with an expression that said 'seriously?'. He then shook his head and prepared himself to sing. 

The first few lines seemed normal, but when the chorus came. "-That you were Juliet!" 

"Hey! Those aren't the right words!" Hinata snapped at the singing boy, but he seemed to ignore the other and kept singing while changing a few of the words here and there.

You could already hear in the pink head's voice that he was far from sober, but he still managed to sound quite good, though not always hitting all of the right notes or kind of blurring some of the words.

"Cause we were both young when I first saw youuuuuu." The last words rung in the room and Souda exhaled heavily. He put down the microphone on the table and sprawled out on the sofa, since everyone else was sitting on the floor. He patted Hinata's shoulder to mark that it's his turn now.

The brunet boy stood up and fished out his task. "So it seems I'll have to sing 'extremely over-dramatically'." he looked at the others. "Any suggestions?"

"...Ummm, how about 'I'm walking on sunshine'?" Chiaki offered.

"Fine, then play the music and let’s get this thing started."

The cheerful tune started playing and Hinata took a deep breath. 'Here goes nothing.'

" Oh! Ohhhh yeeeah! I used to think maybe you loved me, now baby I'm sure~" the singing boy turned to his audience with over-exaggerated movements. He winked at no one in particular, though it seemed in the general direction of where Chiaki and Komaeda were sitting, and put both of his hands on the mic. "I'm walking on sunshine, wooah!" 

During the whole song the brunet boy kept acting way over the top and unnecessarily stressing out most of the words, but he didn't even feel stupid. Maybe because everyone was also singing along and acting like little kids along with him.

"I'll say it again now and don't it feel good!!!" Hinata kept the last note for a few moments and then let his voice fade out. He felt exhausted, but also in a good mood. He bowed down for his spectators and he could hear loud clapping and cheering.

"That was awesome, even if Hinata did sound like a cat being skinned!" Souda laughed at him.

"Well Ibuki thinks his 'whoa’s' were right on the spot. Good job!" the girl gave him thumbs up with both of her hands. "Now the last one left is Komaeda. Knock us dead!"

"I'll try." the white head smiled and reached for the hat. After pulling out the piece of paper he skimmed through it and then his face turned chalk white. "Uuuuum... I-I..." he stuttered a bit.

Hinata was getting a little annoyed and took the paper from his hands then read it out loud as soon as he got it. "Sing an idiotic love song to the person sitting to your left." He fell silent and looked over at Komaeda, who still seemed to be in a state of shock. Only when the other looked at Hinata, did the boy realize he was the one on the left side of the taller teen. "Oh who the hell even wrote this?!" he gave a stare to all of the others, who seemed to be trying very hard to hold in their laughter. The brunet sighed and then grinned to mask his anger. He patted Komaeda on the back and smirked at him. "So show us what you've got 'lover boy'."

Komaeda looked dumbfounded for a few seconds, but then the white head nodded and stood up. Tsumiki was whispering something to Chiaki, then both of the girls giggled and Chiaki turned to the music program to choose a song. When the music started playing the boy stiffened again and then suddenly started laughing. Hinata didn’t know this song, so he just hoped that it wasn’t anything too embarrassing. The singer turned to him and still trying to stifle his laughter started singing. “Baby you, baby you, got me smillin’, got me smillin’. You had me from the first time you said eww, you said eww.”

Hinata also burst out laughing while the other was prancing next to him. Komaeda then turned straight to him and pointed his finger at the shorter boy while singing: “Out of ten I’d give you a nine point nine, nine point nine. Twenty four seven you’re on my mind, on my mind.”

“Hey! I’m only worth nine point nine?” Hinata put his hand to his chest in fake mock while pretending to be offended. Komaeda almost lost his composure again at this, but managed to keep singing and extended his free hand to Hinata. The other took it and stood up and noticed that the words changed colour, indicating that another person had to sing. He quickly took the microphone and also started singing the lyrics on the screen.

“Eww! Get away! Get away!” he gently pushed Komaeda to the side while grinning. “Can’t believe I agreed to go with you on this date, on this date.”

After the song ended the two boys both finally lost it and started laughing uncontrollably. All the others in the room were also clutching at their stomachs and were teary-eyed. Hinata somehow managed to sit down on the loveseat with his legs still wobbling from the excitement and the dancing. Komaeda flopped down next to him and wiggled his eyebrows with a small smirk on his face and then both of them started giggling again.

After everyone seemed to calm down Tsumiki suddenly stood up and said that the preparations for the next game should be already done and before anyone could say anything, she ran into the kitchen. Chiaki also stood up and murmured something about helping Tsumiki not get stabbed by a knife or something and headed after the long haired girl. Hinata looked at the clock and was a little taken aback, since it already read 11 p.m. It seemed like he had only come to Chiaki’s house an hour ago.

The two girls came back with big trays with lots of colourful cups on them. They set them on the table and Tsumiki cleared her throat to get the attention to her. “Now that we have everyone in a good mood, let’s make that mood even better!”

Hinata raised a brow at this. The girl didn’t seem like her normal, shy self, but rather quite energetic. ‘Maybe the atmosphere and the drinks have already gotten to her?’ he thought to himself.

“So has anyone heard about the jello-shots game?” Everyone shook their heads and she continued. “Well basically everyone will need to be in teams of two, so let’s choose them now.”

Tsumiki then proceeded to put her hand on Chiaki’s shoulder and then both of the girls nodded and Ibuki grabbed Souda’s hand. Hinata looked around and realized that only he and Komaeda were left without partners, so he shrugged and also nodded to the white head.

“Ok, since that got settled now it’s time for the game rules.” Tsumiki stood up and took one cup in her hand. “One of the players in the team will be blindfolded and the other will have to have their stomachs exposed. There’re no rules how you choose which one will be which. When the blindfold is put on one of the players, on the other’s stomach will be put some of these jellos. The blind player will then have to eat those jellos as fast as possible, since the first team to get rid of all of them wins. Any questions?”

“Yeah, why did you call them jello-shots?” Souda asked.

“Obviously because they were made with alcohol, since that’s more fun.” Tsumiki smiled at him.

“Oh…”

“So let’s get started then!” Ibuki exclaimed.

Hinata looked at Komaeda with a questioning look. “So who will be who?”

“I really don’t want to make you uncomfortable in any way, so I have no idea.” Komaeda replied with a stern look on his face.

“Fine, then let’s just play rock paper scissors to decide. Winner gets to be the blindfolded one.” Hinata offered. Komaeda nodded and after a few failed attempts where both of them made the same gesture he finally won. The white head looked apologetically at the other, but Hinata just shrugged.

“I’m already the shirtless one, so I guess that’s even better, right?”

“I guess so.” Komaeda smiled a bit.

When everyone was ready, Chiaki gave the blindfolded players some scarves. Tsumiki, Komaeda and Ibuki took them and proceeded to tie them around their eyes. The pink head girl then told the others to lie down and since they were already shirtless, she didn’t need to tell them to expose their stomachs. She took a few of the colourful jellos from their cups and placed them on the laying boys’ and then lied down herself. Hinata felt a little ticklish when the girl was placing the game parts on him, but he tried not to laugh. If this made him ticklish, then what would happen when the actual game started?

The blinded players were trying to make their positions more comfortable while not stepping on the ones lying on the ground. Komaeda was also hovering just over Hinata and the brunet felt his face heating up a little.

Chiaki lifted her shirt a bit and put the jellos on her own stomach. She then cleared her throat and announced: “…On the count of three. One… Two… Three!” 

Hinata was not expecting for Komaeda to be so eager to win this game, so when the white haired boy immediately started searching for the jello shots on the brunet's stomach with his mouth, Hinata was caught by surprise. The blindfolded boy's tongue was tickling him way too much and he had to clap both of his hands on his mouth to keep himself from bursting out. It really didn't help that Komaeda also put his hands on the lying boy's torso to steady himself. His touch was firm and a little cold on Hinata's body, which seemed to keep going up in temperature and then boy wasn't sure anymore about the reason. He heard someone yelling 'Done!', but his concentration wasn't exactly on his surroundings anymore.

Komaeda had already found two of the little jellos, but he was still searching for the third one with his mouth. Hinata wanted for him to finally do it, since his pants were getting a little uncomfortable and he could only hold in his voice for this long. He heard someone talking near him and it seemed like it was Souda commenting on something, but he got distracted again, because it seemed that Komaeda had finally found the last jello. The boy scooped it up with his mouth and ate it. Hinata finally let go of his mouth and breathed out a sigh full of relief. He steadied himself up on his arms and put one of them on Komaeda's shoulder to signal that it was over. The white haired boy lifted a bit of the blindfold and looked at Hinata. Both of their faces were flushed and they were breathing heavily.

"Hey there you two, getting close and personal?" 

Hinata abruptly turned his head from facing Komaeda and looked at the one who was talking to them. Souda was crouching down and grinning at him.

"Well I see you didn't have enough time to get close and personal with Ibuki." Hinata retorted. Souda's face fell at this and the boy whispered something. Hinata only caught 'too fast' and 'violated'. 

Komaeda got off of him and helped the brunet up on his feet. Both of them stood up and saw that Tsumiki was still struggling with two of the jellos that were left on Chiaki's stomach. Ibuki was kneeling next to them and shouting encouragements.

Tsumiki was fiddling with her hands and tongue and when it seemed that she had finally found the jello, she dropped it again. Chiaki was looking a bit frustrated, but probably not because they had lost, but because Tsumiki still seemed to be her clumsy self. After finally managing to get the second shot, the long haired girl seemed to get a hold of herself and got the third one in just a few seconds. Ibuki cheered and both of the girls stood up.

"Now that was fun, wasn't it?" Komaeda said playfully. Hinata's face, which had already managed to go back to its normal colour, decided to paint itself red once again at this statement. Chiaki raised a brow at this and then smirked a little at the flustered boy.

*

"No no, I mean if you take the fish out of the bathtub, it'd still be yellow, right?"

"I think it would actually turn green if you did that."

"But do you have any actual proof?"

"Of course not. I don't even own any fish. Do you?"

"Not really. Hey, Nanami! Do you have any pet goldfish, a bathtub, some silver glitter and a whole lot of oranges?"

"You're not getting anything." Chiaki said while keeping her face fixated on Mario kart, which she was playing with Komaeda.

"Aww, come on." Souda whined. "It's for scientific reasons."

"Yeah! Ibuki also wants to see what would happen to the fish."

"You're not getting anything." Chiaki repeated again in monotone.

"Seems like she won't budge. I guess we won't be able to make the experiment." Hinata sighed. "Ok, then let's do this - write your suggestions on what we could change in this experiment for her to let us do it. I'll try to convince her." 

Souda and Ibuki nodded eagerly and started scribbling down on the papers then handed them to Hinata.

"Ok, I can read, not well at this moment, but I can read and these letters are backwards! What the hell you guys?" Hinata asked irritated.

"Seems like you're already up to go solving some murder mysteries, Sherlock." came Chiaki's voice from the other side of the room.

Ibuki and Souda both looked at their writings and squinted their eyes. After a few moments it seemed that realization had struck them and they started laughing while pointing at each other and then at the papers. Hinata also smiled at them.

After a few more minutes Chiaki and Komaeda seemed to have finished their game and the two of them joined the idiotic trio.

"Hey, has anyone seen Tsumiki?" asked Komaeda and looked around the room. The others also started looking around, but the clumsy girl wasn't there. 

"I'll go check, you can wait here." Chiaki said and stood up.

"Ibuki will also help!"

The two girls left and only the guys were left in the living room. Souda was still grinning, but then his smile fell and the boy suddenly started sobbing.

"What's wrong?" Komaeda put his hand on the pink head's back and started rubbing circles to soothe him.

"I-it's just that I realized that Miss Sonia will never like me how I like her." the boy bawled. "She'll never want to get to know my body how I want to get to know hers and it's all because of that fucking Gundam. Fuck that guy!"

"Here he goes again." Hinata sighed. "Just ignore him. Maybe give him a pillow, so he can pretend it's Sonia and try making out with it. That should be entertaining." he winked at Komaeda. The other laughed a little at this and then helped Souda up and guided him to the couch.

Just as the emotional boy was seated, the two girls came back and Chiaki shook her head. 

"It looks like she's not here... Though I called her phone and she did answer. Said she needed to get some 'business' done and then hung up, so I guess she's fine." The pink head then yawned. "And it's getting pretty late, so I think it's time to go to sleep."

The pink haired girl then looked at the sofa where Souda was already sprawled out and snoring while clutching one of the cushions. "So it seems Souda already has a place to sleep, I'll just bring him some blankets... Ibuki, you'll be sleeping with me in my room and the two of you," she looked at Hinata and Komaeda. "will be sleeping in parents room, since there's no way we'll all fit together."

"All right, so I guess goodnight then." Hinata said and yawned himself.

"Goodnight." Chiaki smiled.

"Sleep well." Komaeda also added in.

"Yes, don't let the little bed bugs or any other things bite." Ibuki winked with a smirk.

Since Hinata was the one who knew Chiaki's house, he guided Komaeda up the stairs and into the bedroom that was assigned for them by the pink haired girl. The journey up the stairs wasn't as easy as Hinata had hoped and both of the boys had only somehow managed to wobble to the top without falling down. All of the drinks the brunet had had during the evening were making his head spin and it seemed that Komaeda was in a similar condition. When they reached the bedroom, Hinata didn't even bother to turn on the lights, since they would only have irritated their eyes and besides, the room was lit up pretty nicely by the moonlight coming in through the large window, which covered almost all of one of the walls. The brunet flopped down on the end of the bed, so that he could face the window and patted the place next to him. Komaeda seemed to understand the invitation and also sat down. 

The two boys sat in silence for a few minutes until Hinata finally spoke up. "Today was pretty fun, right?" he looked over at Komaeda, whose white hair seemed faintly blue in the moonlight. 'He really does look angelic like this.' Hinata caught himself thinking, but didn't have any energy left to brush it off.

"Yeah, I really enjoyed it." Komaeda smiled, while still looking at the window. "I don't think I've ever actually had this much fun before." he laughed a bit to himself, but it didn't seem cheerful.

"Really? You've never had anything like this with your friends?" Hinata looked at the other questioningly, but Komaeda still had his gaze fixed on the view outside the window.

"I've never actually had any true friends per se. Only my twin cousins. Weird couple actually. One of them is really stoic and doesn't talk too much and the other seems to always have to say something."

"So you're an only child?" 

"Yes. Well actually I'm the only one in my house." the white haired boy smiled weakly.

"The only one in your house?" Hinata repeated the last words the other had said.

"It's not as fun as 'Home alone' made it out to be." he leaned more on his hands and sighed. "I guess I should explain more clearly, I'm sorry. As I said, I'm the only one who lives in my house. My aunt comes to check up on me a few times a month and her kids also come sometimes, but that's it. My parents died when I was little and I didn't have that many other relatives, so my aunt agreed to take care of me, though now I guess she doesn't really see the point anymore, since I inherited quite a sum from my parents and don't really have any problems with living expenses."

"So you've basically been living alone all this time?" Hinata was taken aback by this. Komaeda always seemed so cheerful, like he didn't have a care in the world. Seems like appearances weren't everything.

"Yeah and I was always a little afraid to go out on my own, so that's why I didn't really have any friends. I was home schooled for some time, but when I got older, I enrolled to the school where my cousins were studying, though I still got into a different class from them, since I was a year older. After that you know what happened."

Hinata was silent for a few moments, trying to take in everything that he had heard. He wasn't quite sure what he should say.

"I'm sorry, this must be very boring to you." Komaeda apologized.

"No it's not." Hinata quickly retorted. "I'm very sorry for everything that has happened to you... I wish I had known earlier. You probably live in that mansion-like house a few blocks away, right?" Komaeda nodded and Hinata kept speaking. "Well me and Chiaki used to always see it when we were riding bikes or just playing outside and we used to wonder what kind of kid lived there. We should have just come up to the doorbell and rung it instead of just thinking."

"It's really not your fault, I was the one who stayed locked up in it." Komaeda tried reasoning.

"Still, if I only had had more courage, we could have become friends a long time ago and you wouldn't have been so alone." Hinata was getting angry at himself and felt tears forming at the sides of his eyes. He was too tired and drunk to be getting this emotional, he thought to himself. The boy hung his head and stayed silent. Then suddenly a hand cupped his cheek and lifted his face so he was looking at Komaeda. His hand was cool, but not cold and it felt nice, so Hinata didn't even notice how he leaned into the gentle touch. He closed his eyes and relaxed, feeling exhausted after everything. Then after a few moments he felt a light brush on his lips and when he slowly opened his eyes, the shorter boy saw Komaeda's face right in front of his. The white haired boy had his eyes also closed, so Hinata brushed aside any thoughts that were coming up and gave into the soft kiss.

After a few moments Komaeda pulled back and smiled weakly. 

"Thank you." he whispered and fell back on the bed.

"Huh?" Hinata looked at him a bit dazed. The other boy was lying motionless on his back with a small smile still adoring his face. 

Hinata started panicking, but then noticed that Komaeda's chest was slowly rising up and down, so he calmed down. He breathed a sigh of relief and smiled to himself.

After sitting on the end of the bed and looking at the passed out white head for a few minutes, the teen felt sleepiness washing over himself too, so he stood up and hugged Komaeda's torso, so that he could position the other on the bed more comfortably, and moved him up a bit. After laying him down normally on the bed and covering him with the blanket, Hinata lied down himself next to the sleeping boy and closed his eyes. He felt a little weird, but also somehow calm. 

'I guess I did manage to find out more about Komaeda after all.' was his last thought before sleep completely took over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this update took so long, so as an apology this chapter is a bit longer than the previous ones. If anyone's interested, here are the links for everyone's VA's singing, so you can imagine it better, I guess.  
> Ibuki (though I mean anyone who has read the translations already knows how she sounds) http://mizhacollins.tumblr.com/post/68883073396/icecreamsoldier-perfect-romantic-song-for-your  
> Chiaki http://mizhacollins.tumblr.com/post/66004110929/shadiga-nanami-va-has-the-cutest-voice-ever-oh  
> Tsumiki http://mizhacollins.tumblr.com/post/68787146682/kuqat-friendly-reminder-that-tsumikis-singing  
> Souda http://mizhacollins.tumblr.com/post/66002958736/sevenhued-cerise-while-were-at-it-have-a-song  
> Hinata http://mizhacollins.tumblr.com/post/66003714492/sevenhued-cerise-guys-i-found-a-better-hinata  
> Komaeda http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7DCPKm5w7k
> 
> Also my best bro Shieru drew this great promo fanart for my fic. It's more like moments that I haven't written, but they happened at one time or another during the story's setting.  
> http://yaboybokuto.tumblr.com/post/90196971128/hey-you-know-what-you-should-read-you-should-read
> 
> So what's gonna happen next time? Will Tsumiki show up? Will anyone even remember what happened? Will Chiaki blackmail everyone wih pictures, that she managed to take during the evening? Stay tuned in for the next update~


	6. Chapter 6

Hinata was woken up by a blinding light coming in through the window. Groaning, the boy tried to shield his eyes from it, but when he tried to lift his right arm he was met with an obstacle. It seemed that his arm was being held down by something, but at least his left one was free, so the brunet boy lifted it up to his face. That motion didn't help him too much, so he decided to finally open his bloodshot eyes and see what was restraining his other arm, though he had felt extremely comfortable and for some reason, really warm.

Hinata tried to open his eyes slowly and groaned more when they were met with bright rays of light. After a few moments of rapid blinking he wiped at them with his left hand and finally focused on the sight before him. The brunet was laying on his right side and right next to him was a peacefully sleeping Komaeda. The white haired boy was resting one of his arms on Hinata's torso and the ends of his hair were slightly touching the awoken boy's bare chest and tickling it. Red spread on the brunet boy's face when he was finally able to comprehend the situation that he was in. Both of the boys were missing their tops, but Hinata felt that he still had his underpants on. 'Oh god. Did-did we... do anything?' 

Hinata had his arm under the other's neck and so he couldn't exactly move it without waking Komaeda up. He sighed and tried to shift a little, but the sleeping boy mumbled something under his nose and cuddled closer to him while nuzzling his face into the crook of Hinata's neck.

"This really isn't helping..." the teen whispered to himself. The other murmured something again and it seemed like he was agreeing with him. Hinata closed his eyes, took a deep breath and slowly counted to ten to let his face cool off. He then blinked again and looked over at Komaeda. The white haired boy was peacefully dreaming and Hinata couldn't help but imagine a little curled up kitten. 

After a few moments though, Hinata felt a slight pain near his temples. It started increasing once the boy had noticed it and soon his head felt like it weighed a ton and his vision was still swimming. Hinata felt a bit sick and a trip to the bathroom was starting to look like an amazing idea by the second. 

'Maybe if I just move fast enough I won't wake him up...?' a thought came to Hinata's head. He took a deep breath and quickly tried pulling his arm from underneath his sleeping companion, but he had let the fact that the other was holding onto him slip away and when the brunet actually managed to free his arm, Komaeda rolled even closer to him and in a panicky state Hinata tried to pull back, but he had already been near the edge of the bed, so there was nowhere to retreat to. With a small yelp, the boy fell down from the bed on his back. Rubbing it, he slowly stood up and felt everything sway and his legs started to wobble. Hinata quickly smacked one of his hands on his mouth and turned towards the door. He heard Komaeda groan too, so the brunet turned back to him, mumbled about being back soon and dashed out of the room, leaving the other in a confused drowsy state.

After finally being done in the bathroom and washing up, Hinata looked at himself in the mirror. He looked like he hadn't gotten any sleep at all and his hair was a complete mess. Then the boy remembered what he had left in Chiaki's parent's bedroom. A half naked Komaeda, who was probably just as confused as he was and probably felt just as sick as him. 

Hinata splashed some water on his face to get fully awake and headed back to the bedroom to help out the white haired boy. He found Komaeda sitting up on the bed, sheets covering most of his body, and with a spaced-out look on his face. If Hinata had thought that his hair was a mess, then the other's was pure chaos sticking out in all directions and completely defying gravity. Still, it looked pretty cute.

"H-hey..." Hinata tried lamely. The other then seemed to be snapped out of his daydream and turned to the boy standing at the door. His face flushed a bit and he probably had tried to say something, but no sound was coming from the white head's gaping mouth. 

After a few moments he looked like he managed to get his thoughts together. "Hey, Hinata. Well, I can't really seem to place my memory right at this moment. Umm... do you remember anything that could be an explanation?" he looked down at himself and then back to the other topless teen in the room. Hinata's face regained half of its colour at this question and the other averted his eyes while scratching the back of his head. "Ah, I can't remember that clearly myself." his gaze was caught by a night-dresser and he pretended to be extremely interested in it. "I think it involved some drinking games? At least that's probably why we're missing most of our clothes."

"Right..."

"And I think I remember Chiaki making us stay at her parent's bedroom, since she was going to sleep with Ibuki in hers." Hinata slowly looked back at Komaeda, his words laced with a bit of a questioning tone, hoping that the other would prove that he was right. Komaeda just nodded, more to himself that Hinata, so the other continued. "We probably just passed out, though I think we also talked a little? Maybe something about you..."

"Me?" the white haired boy looked at the other with a panicked expression.

"Yeah. Now I remember." Hinata snapped his fingers. "We talked about your childhood and then we-"

Kissed.

The brunet's face became dyed in pink again. 'Wait, maybe that was just a dream...?' Hinata tried to reason with himself. 'I don't know if that was real... I could have made that up, but there's no way in hell that I'll ask him to confirm that... Did we... do anything after that?'

"And then we what?" Komaeda snapped the other from his thoughts with a curious look on his face.

"W-we... Fell asleep?" Hinata said while slightly scratching his cheek with his index finger. Komaeda just kept staring at him with a raised brow, but said nothing. It looked like he was trying to recall the events of the past day too, though his face didn't indicate if he was succeeding. After a few moments the white haired teen shrugged and turned his attention back to Hinata.

"So I guess nothing too important happened." he smiled at the other. Hinata just weakly laughed at that as an agreement. He was still trying to convince himself that the last parts of the previous day never happened and that surely nothing came after that.

After a few seconds, though, Komaeda's smile turned into a strained one and Hinata unconsciously stepped closer to the bed.

"Are you okay?" the brunet asked, concern lacing his voice.

"Yeah... I'm fine..." the other said weakly.

"No, you're not." Hinata stated simply and sat down next to the other boy. "Here," he outstretched his hands towards him. "I'll help you to the bathroom." 

Komaeda blinked a few times and then nodded without a word. He moved so that he'd be sitting on the edge of the bed and dropped his feet on the ground. Hinata put one of his hands around the other's waist and pulled Komaeda's left hand over his shoulders for better leverage. The two of them slowly stood up and Hinata was surprised at how light the white haired boy was. He tried to not stare at him, but Hinata could still feel with his hands that even if Komaeda looked skinny and wasn't that heavy, the other boy still had quite some muscle on himself.

'So when I'm in that idiotic dress during the play, he won't have any problems with carrying me.' Hinata snickered to himself and gained another confused look from Komaeda, but he just shook his head with a small smile and said that it was nothing.

When they reached the bathroom Hinata let go of the taller boy and instructed him on where everything was. Komaeda thanked him and disappeared behind the door. Hinata leaned against the wall and slid down to his knees. He could hear some sounds coming from the kitchen and guessed that at least some other people were already awake and busy, so when the white haired teen exited the bathroom, he stood up and nodded towards the sound. "Let's go. Everyone's probably waiting for us." the brunet then stretched out his hands again, indicating for Komaeda to come closer.

"Aah, you don't need to do that anymore. I'm fine." he put up his arms in front of himself and shook them a little.

"Just come here." Hinata sighed with a frown. "I don't know how about you, but I still feel like shit, so I'm guessing that both of us could use some help getting down the stairs."

"Well when you put it like that..."

"I know, I'm a poetic genius." the brunet smirked. "Just don't ask me about my perfect date if you don't want to hear about the cheesiest, rom-com worthy and probably the most pathetic setting ever."

"But that could be quite interesting." Komaeda said in a heartbeat. 

'Was it just me, or was that a bit too fast?' Hinata was taken aback by the quick answer, but shook it off as just his imagination and continued with the previous topic. "Believe me, it wouldn't. Anyways, we better hurry, since we haven't got all day. We probably already wasted half of it sleeping."

"But shouldn't we put on some clothes?" Komaeda was still reluctant. "I mean, I don't mind it if it's you, but..."

"Who cares. It's not like they'll see anything different from what they saw yesterday and it's pretty warm here." Hinata still firmly stood his ground, so the other finally gave in and slumped one of his hands over the brunet's shoulders. Both of them staggered down the staircase and headed towards the kitchen. In there they were greeted by an unusual sight - Chiaki was standing by the stove and the girl was cooking something while humming a happy tune. She didn't even notice the newcomers until she had to turn towards the table to pick some ingredients. The short girl then blinked a few times, her gaze switching from one boy to the other. She looked them up and down then let out a soft 'oh' sound. After that, her eyes finally traveled to their faces and she gave them a small smirk. Hinata looked at her dumbfounded for a few seconds, but then it hit him what the girl must had been thinking and a blush crept up on his face. 

"Good morning, Nanami." the brunet said, stressing out every word, so that the pink head would catch on and not say anything unneeded.

"Good morning." Komaeda echoed.

"Afternoon." Chiaki simply said and turned back to the stove. "Even so, I'm making breakfast, since everyone decided to only wake up now. Ibuki's in the shower on the first floor, but I wouldn't really let her near the food either way..." She picked up some seasoning and continued talking. "Tsumiki's still sleeping, but I didn't want to wake her up. She wouldn't be that much of help too."

"Wait, Tsumiki came back?" Hinata asked while taking out one seat and sitting at the table. Komaeda did the same and sat next to him.

"...Yeah." Chiaki took a moment to collect her thoughts. "I woke up with her almost strangling me. She had somehow managed to get in through the open window - though we're on the second floor - and when I woke up, because I couldn't breathe, she was sprawled out on the bed with half of her clothes torn. She didn't look like she was hurt, though."

"So did she wake up or have you still not heard any explanation from her?" Komaeda asked with a curious tone.

"I left her sleeping. Ibuki woke up, but even her loud wake-up calls couldn't budge little Miss Sleeping Beauty."

"Now I'm really interested at what she was up to all night." Hinata cooed.

"I wonder if it was anything similar to what the two of you were up to." Chiaki turned to the sitting boys and gave them a wink.

"Oh we just talked and went to sleep." Komaeda chirped back at her. 

"Oh really?" The girl raised a brow and turned to Hinata.

"Y-yup. Nothing interesting at all." the boy stammered. It seemed like the girl wasn't even slightly convinced, but she let it slide and turned back to the frying pan.

"By the way, where's Souda? Still on the sofa?" Hinata tried to change the topic.

"Not really... Look next to you."

"What do you mea-" the brunet boy didn't finish his sentence as he only now noticed that half of the considerably big table was covered in piles upon piles of lemons.

'How the hell didn't I see that?'

"Ugh..." came a weak groan from somewhere in the yellow heap.

"Souda?" Hinata cautiously asked and poked at some of the lemons. A few of them rolled down and revealed a mop of magenta.

"What the hell...?" Komaeda asked, his expression full of confusion.

"Ugh... Don't talk so loud." the pink haired boy responded, not bothering to lift up his head. "I'm trying to heal myself over here."

"I think you'd be able to heal yourself better if you actually did something with those lemons, instead of burying yourself in them. You know, like making a drink." Chiaki stated in monotone.

"Where did you even get so many?" Hinata asked, taking one of them in his hand and inspecting it. "I didn't know Chiaki had a stash of them."

"Neither did I." the girl replied with a hum.

"I dunno, dude. Everything's mostly blurry." Souda waved one of his hands weakly. "I only recall bits and pieces of what I did or still am doing."

"Like sobbing about Sonia and then trying to make out with a pillow imagining it was her?" Hinata smirked. "Or maybe you thought it was Gundam? I wouldn't be too surprised." he held up his hands and shrugged his shoulders in an exaggerated manner. At that the other suddenly shot his head up, making a couple of lemons roll down on the ground.

"What the hell gave you that idea?!" the pink head's voice cracked an octave higher and his whole face turned a dark crimson colour.

"So I was right~" 

"As hell you are! Fuck that guy." Souda slapped one hand on the table.

"Yeah, fuck that guy. I'm sure you'd like that, but let’s keep this family friendly." Hinata winked at him.

"Oh sure, as family friendly as you got with Komaeda last night." Souda snapped back.

"I told you, nothing happened between us!" Now it was Hinata's turn to blush.

"Keep telling that to yourself." the pink head puffed out. "Where even are your clothes? Couldn't be bothered to cover up, hah?"

"Guys, guys, calm down." Komaeda tried to reason, though his cheeks also had a faint tint of red on them. "You'll wake up Tsumiki."

"Look, now your boyfriend's trying to back you up!" the yellow clad teen snarled.

"For the last time, we didn't do anything!" Hinata growled at him.

Souda was about to retort something, but he was cut off when a plate was smacked down in front of his face. The boy's expression turned to a confused one, but then Chiaki gave him a look that said 'say one more word and all of this steaming food will be shoved down your throat in one go'. The pink haired boy gulped and shrunk in his seat while lowering down his head.

Hinata sneered at him, but then Chiaki immediately turned her head to the brunet with the same glare, so the boy decided it was best to refrain from saying anything else. She then put a plate in front of him, one for Komaeda and then a few more for herself, Ibuki and Tsumiki. The girl then turned to them with an uncharacteristically big smile. "Enjoy." was her simple statement. All of them quickly nodded and started eating as fast as possible.

As soon as Chiaki herself sat down, Ibuki glided into the room on her socks with a loud whistle. "Hey everyone! The sun is high, the food smells mouth-watering and Ibuki feels amazing! How about you?"

Everyone just looked at her, their mouths stuffed with omelette. Chiaki gave her a warm smile and patted on a chair next to her. "We're fine and we were just waiting for you."

"Awesome!" Ibuki grinned and flopped down on her seat.

After a few moments another person shyly popped their head from the door frame and it was finally Tsumiki. She silently greeted the other people in the room and sat down next to her plate.

"You probably woke her up with all of that gay crisis." Chiaki silently mumbled.

"So, Tsumiki," Komaeda started. "I'm sorry for asking this so unexpectedly, but where did you run off to last night?"

"Huh?" the girl looked at him perplexed.

"Well, you know, you kind of disappeared after a while." Komaeda still tried to pry. "We tried looking for you, but you weren't at the house. Then Nanami called you and you said that you had some business to take care of."

"I did?" Tsumiki looked genuinely lost.

"Yeah, you did." Hinata swallowed his food and also joined in. "Then this morning Chiaki woke up with you almost strangling her in your sleep."

"Oh god," the shy girl's face paled and she turned to Chiaki. "Did I hurt you? Who am I kidding, of course I did. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. I need to check if you need any medical attention. Do you have a first-aid kit?" she started to frantically look around the room, but Chiaki just put her hand atop of the other girl's and smiled.

"You didn't do anything, don't worry." she then made a more serious expression. "Though I am concerned as to why you came back with torn clothes. Did something happen?"

"Huh?" Tsumiki was taken aback by the reply. She then proceeded to look herself over and it seemed like she only now noticed her clothes. "I... I don't know... I can't really remember what I did. I was wondering how I managed to get to bed. I don't feel as though I'm hurt, so maybe it's nothing serious? Maybe I just got caught up in a bush or something..."

"That wouldn't be anything new." Souda said while twirling his spoon in his food.

"Ahh... And I was hoping for an interesting story..." Komaeda sighed.

"Don't act as if you're disappointed. That's creepy." Hinata pointed to him with his spoon.

"Ehehe, I guess you're right." the white haired boy gave him a strange smile.

"Well, at least nobody got injured, so who cares what happened." Chiaki shrugged and continued eating. "...But am I the only one who actually clearly remembers all that happened yesterday?"

"Ibuki remembers too!"

"I see..."

*

After everyone was done with breakfast it was already 2 p.m. and they decided it was high time they started getting ready to leave. As always, Chiaki made Hinata stay longer and help her out with the cleaning, but he agreed, since he didn't feel right leaving everything up to his childhood friend. Everyone said their goodbyes, Souda collected some of the unopened bottles, so that Chiaki wouldn't need to deal with them, and Komaeda gave Hinata a hug that was a bit longer than necessary, though he gave one to Chiaki also.

Finally, the two of them were left alone, just like at the beginning. As soon as the doors closed Chiaki turned to Hinata and smirked. The boy sighed at that and didn't even ask what she was thinking about, since it was clearly written all over her face. 

"Okay, okay, I won't say anything." the girl stated and twirled around on her feet to head towards the living room. "But you'll be in charge of changing the bed sheets, because there's no way I'll be doing that."

"Chiaki, haven't you been listening to a word I said?" Hinata asked without any energy for a witty reply.

"I have and that's why I said that it'll be your responsibility. I don't really care what happened, but I'd at least like to be sure my parents don't notice anything." she replied in a sing-song tone.

"Sure, whatever. I see that you refuse to listen." Hinata put up his arms in exaggeration. 

Chiaki just gave him a small wink and put her index finger to her lips. "I won't tell anyone, but I can't guarantee that the others will do the same."

"I feel so much better now." Hinata slumped after her into the living room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy belated holidays everyone!  
> I'm sorry, since I planned to make this chapter longer, but I kinda got lazy... Also I apologise that there hasn't been much of any mention about the play, but fear not, cos the next chapter will have plenty of that.  
> I hope everyone has a great New Year~


	7. Chapter 7

On Monday Hinata was in a great mood and didn't even protest when the class got the notice that after lessons everyone would have to help with the making of the props for their play. Most of the kids answered to these news with a groan, but he just shrugged. Next to him Chiaki was sleeping on her table and the girl kept mumbling something under her nose while puffing out small bubbles. She most likely stayed up all night again and the boy couldn't help but smile at the sight. He brushed off some stray strands of hair from her face and a small thought wandered into his mind about how she always seemed like an annoying, supportive, insightful, nagging and cute little sibling. Hinata smiled sweetly at her and turned to look out through the window, though some classmates heads obstructed his view, since his table was about in the middle of the class.

After classes were over everyone headed out to the drama stage to work on the decorations. The PE teacher, Mr Nidai, was already there to greet everyone with loads of boxes behind him. He and Akane fist bumped with huge grins plastering their faces and immediately started talking about something. Hinata mostly ignored them and headed towards the boxes. After inspecting them, the brunet found that they contained paint, wires, ropes, some wooden planks, a lot of different coloured sheets and other similar stuff. It looked like it might have cost quite a sum, so Hinata immediately turned towards Togami, who was leaning against one of the walls. The boy gave the other a questioning look and Togami just scuffed.

'So it seems like he's really dedicated for this, huh. Well, good for him, I guess.' Hinata shrugged.

After everyone had a job they were responsible for, the work began. Every few minutes or so someone would always trip over the hundreds of wires littered on the ground and spill the paint they were carrying or drop whatever else they had in their hands. Tsumiki already looked like a paint factory had exploded on her and those near her looked similar. Hinata had tried to stay further away from the clumsy girl and his clothes still looked relatively clean. He was helping Souda and Kuzuryuu with cutting the wooden decorations for the backgrounds and their job seemed to be going pretty smoothly. Kuzuryuu would shout some profanities if they cut something wrong but it was only a couple of times, so Hinata considered their job going quite well. Souda kept chattering about the little get-together on Friday, though he seemed to avoid anything too embarrassing. Kuzuryuu looked like he couldn't care less and Hinata just listened thinking whether he should interfere or not.

"Aaaand then, I swear, I thought I saw my whole life flashing before my eyes. She looked like a wild beast ready to devour its first meal after months of starving." the pink haired boy shuddered. "I should have gone for Chiaki or Tsumiki. That was a huge mistake from my side, because now I feel like I've been violated and I can't even remember seeing it cos it was so damn fast."

"Then why are you even complaining?" Hinata raised a brow at him. "If you can't remember it then everything is fine."

"No, it's not. Like hell it is and you fucking know it." Souda glared at the brunet. "And you're one to talk. Couldn't even speak normally after your 'session'." he air quoted.

Hinata was about to retort something to that but Kuzuryuu beat him to the punch. "Seems to me like both of you shitheads had similar experiences and neither one of you got the better end, so shut your fucking bickering, because you're starting to give me a migraine from your idiotic arguments." the boy finally snapped at them, though his words didn't have that much bite anymore since he seemed preoccupied with his work.

Hinata turned to Souda and nodded to him indicating that he wanted to have a talk with them alone. The yellow-clad teen complied and both of them took a few steps towards the emptier part of the stage.

"Look, I won't mention anything about your make-out session with the pillow and the sob fest following it and" he shushed the pink hair, who was about to say something, with his index finger. "I don't care if you remember that or not. Let's just keep both of our more embarrassing moments to ourselves. Deal?"

It looked like Souda was contemplating the offer but after a few moments he slightly nodded. "Deal."

They shook hands with completely straight faces and Hinata caught a glimpse of Kuzuryuu who was looking at them with a raised brow and his face told the brunet that they looked absolutely ridiculous, so he quickly let go of Soudas hand and waved back to the blond who was giving them the look. The short teen just snarled and rolled his eyes as the two boys returned to their work posts.

"Oh, I also didn't mention a thing that happened when we were walking back from Chiaki's." Souda piped up again. "So remember how Tsumiki disappeared that night?" he turned to Hinata as the other let out a small hum of agreement. "I think I have a vague idea what she was up to." he grined looking proud of himself.

"So the four of us were walking down the street and a group of guys, who looked like some sort of thugs, started approaching us with smirks and whatnot. I, of course, stood up at the front to protect the others if anything were to go down but then the strangest thing happened. When they got closer all of them froze at the same time with a look of pure horror on their faces. Naturaly, I thought that it was because I looked so intimidating." Souda puffed out his chest with his hands on his torso. "So we continued walking and as Tsumiki, who was hiding behind Komaeda, got closer to them they all started stuttering 'ma'm' and the few that had caps on their heads even took them off to bow."

Hinata whistled with surprise. "So you think she beat them up or something?"

"Or something." the magenta coloured hair teen shrugged. "I'm not sure, but they seemed to be treating her like some kind of mafia boss. It was pretty awesome."

"I can't imagine how that would feel like." came a retort from Kuzuryuu who was still focused on the cutting.

"Hey, man. Not all of us were born with a gangster spoon in their mouths." Souda snapped back at him. "So let us have our fun, oh 'great leader'." he mocked.

"The fuck did you just say?!" the blond barked out. "You think it's all games and parties there? Well newsflash, idiot - it fucking isn't. So shut your trap before you further embarrass all of us."

"Oh I'm so sorry, your highness. Did I offend you? Or maybe you feel threatened that there's a new person rising to that post?" Souda smirked.

"I can show you my fist rising to your-"

"Okay, girls, calm down." Hinata stepped in-between them. "There's no need to get rough."

Just as the last word left the brunet's mouth a shriek resounded through the room so everyone turned towards the source of the sound and then just sighed seeing that it was Tsumiki, who was lying in a puddle of green paint and standing next to her was Koizumi who had a bucket on her head and the paint was slowly seeping down on her.

"Speak of the devil." Souda said in a low voice.

"Big sis!" Came a voice and Saionji was already at the red head’s side and taking the bucket in her hands. "Are you okay? Did she hurt you?" the small girl turned to glare at Tsumiki who was being helped by Chiaki and Peko.

"No no, it's alright." Koizumi took a napkin that was offered to her by Sonia. "It was an accident and I'm fine."

"She's a walking accident." Saionji snarled but then turned her whole attention back to Koizumi. "You're completely soaked and your clothes are ruined. I can't just let you stay like that." the girl puffed out her cheeks but after a few moments her face lit up. "Oh oh! I have a few spare t-shirts in my bag!" 

As Saionji said that she was already turning to leave the room and the small girl dashed out without any other word.

"Uuum, I guess it's a bit too late to tell her that her clothes might be too small for me." Koizumi gave a weak smile while wiping her face from the paint.

"It's the thought that counts." Chiaki patted her back and then pulled her hand back to see it smeared in paint too.

When Saionji came back Koizumi explained to her that the t-shirt might be too small but the girl didn't seem fazed and said that it was too big for her, so she had intended to give it away either way. 

"You? Giving something away?" Teruteru asked with a doubtful look. "This couldn't be from good will. What's the catch?"

"I can be nice too." the girl pulled an angry expression, though the blush didn't help her look too intimidating.

"Wow, this is exactly my size!" Koizumi said while coming back from the dressing rooms. "And it looks amazing! Are you sure you want to give this away? I could return it after I wash it."

"N-no... You can keep it. Actually, "Saionji took the bag and gave it to the red head. "You can have all of these since they all are the same size." she said with a bit of pink on her cheeks and trying to avoid eye contact.

"Are you sure? I mean, they all appear to be brand new and quite expensive." Koizumi gave her a questioning look.

Saionji nodded and didn't say anything else, keeping her lips in a tightly pressed line. The taller girl smiled sweetly and wrapped her hands around her for a hug. "Then thanks."

"Awww." Hinata heard a small sound next to him and turned to see Chiaki standing at his side. The girl looked up at him with a little smile tugging at her lips as their eyes met for a second and then she just turned and walked away to her post at arranging materials for the curtains. Hinata followed her with his eyes and a nagging feeling that that little exchange meant something, but he just couldn't quite get what.

*

Everything seemed to go pretty smoothly after the paint incident and Hinata was about to finish up with his part. He guessed he could help with something else, so he turned to look around to see if anyone was struggling with their jobs. His eyes landed on Komaeda, who seemed to be carrying a box of spray-paint cans and working alone, so the brunet told Souda that he and Kuzuryuu could finish up and headed towards the white head.

Komaeda was just walking under the work ladder when he saw Hinata approaching him. He smiled and opened his mouth to say something but he was cut off when yet another bucket came hurdling down on his head, effectively silencing him.

"Ups!" Saionji said from atop the ladder. "Sorry~" the girl smirked as Komaeda lifted the bucket to look at her. "Though this wasn't meant for you." her gaze travelled to Tsumiki who was standing just a few steps away from him. 

"Better luck next time." Komaeda laughed weakly and put the now empty bucket down on the floor. He was completely drenched in red and his hair was sticking to his face while droplets of paint were still traveling down it. He then turned back to Hinata and gave the other a little smile. "I guess I didn't manage to say hi."

"Uuuh, hi?" Hinata was still a bit dumbfounded. "Are you, I dunno - okay?"

"Yeah. Well, my shirt is soaked and I need to wash my hair and face, but yeah." Komaeda fumbled around his words.

"So I'm guessing you could use a new shirt, right?" The brunet folded his arms with a smirk.

"I could, but I don't have a spare one with myself here."

"Then you could say you got a little lucky, since I always carry a spare one with myself after a prank that Chiaki and Souda did. I never want to walk back home through the whole city without a shirt and 'open 24/7' written on my back again. Trust me, not an experience you'd want to repeat." Hinata cringed a bit at the memory. "Well, anyway, do you want my shirt?"

"Uuuuh, I'm not sure." Komaeda started shifting on his feet nervously. "I wouldn't want to ruin it..."

"I don't care about that." Hinata shrugged. "You could return it to me whenever you'd want to."

"Umm, okay then." the taller boy complied. "I'll come back in a bit, just need to wash up a little."

"Sure." Hinata smiled and went back to get his bag. After rummaging through it, he pulled out a simple white shirt and folded it out to inspect it. He decided it should fit Komaeda, since they were about the same height. Maybe it would be a little baggy on the other boy, but he guessed it wouldn't be too much of an issue.

The white haired boy returned after a few minutes with his face relatively clean, though his locks still had a faint shade of red in them.

"Tsumiki and Miss Monomi saw me going to the bathroom. I think our teacher almost fainted and Tsumiki seemed to go right into her medical mode." Komaeda started going off as soon as he saw Hinata. "It seems like they thought that something really serious had happened to me, since it looked like I was covered in blood. Did it really look like it?"

"Well, to me it seemed like you were drowned in neon strawberry jam. Your hair especially looked like cotton candy dipped in that stuff." the brunet replied with a simple shrug.

"Then I guess they just over-reacted."

Hinata then handed him the shirt and when Komaeda still looked at him doubtfully he nodded and put it in the other's hands. The taller teen sighed and pulled off his stained top to put on the new one. His face was slightly flushed when he straightened out the article of clothing and he expectantly looked up at Hinata.

"Just as I thought, it's a bit baggy, especially around your chest, but I guess it's because you're so damn skinny." the brunet tugged at it.

"I'm not skinny. You're just too broad." Komaeda replied with a small pout. "You probably secretly work out, because I don't think that kind of body would just magically appear on a lazy person."

"Damn, my secret has been revealed. Now everyone will know that I work out in my basement in the middle of the night when everyone is asleep." Hinata faked an angry tone. "How could I make you not tell anyone and keep silent about this horrible shameful habit of mine?"

"You could let me keep your shirt." Komaeda blurted out and after a second seemed to realize what he said.

"Wait, what?" the shorter boy dropped the act and raised his eyebrow.

"N-nothing." the white head put up his hands in front of himself. "It was just a silly joke."

"Uhuh... Are you sure the bucket didn't hit your head too hard?"

"Nah, it doesn't hurt."

"Okay, because then I would feel bad about thinking that it was funny." Hinata smiled playfully. "It literally looked like the universe just told you to shut up before you could even say anything."

"Maybe I do talk too much." the taller boy put up his index finger to his cheek as if thinking it over. "I probably deserved it, since it is said that walking under a ladder brings bad luck."

Hinata's eyes traveled to where the other's finger was pointing and he noticed a little smudge of paint that was still on Komaeda's nose. The other kept talking about something but Hinata just couldn't concentrate on it, because that stain was kind of irritating him. 

"I mean I have heard that if you even slightly touch that it would bring you ten years of bad luck, which I frankly did when I was little." Komaeda kept rambling, not noticing that the brunet's eyes were set on him until Hinata took a few steps closer and reached out his hand. "Um, Hinata? What are you doing?" He asked, a tint of red creeping up on his cheeks.

"Just wait a sec." the shorter boy shushed him and his hand was right at the other's face. Komaeda shut his eyes and visibly shrunk into himself as if expecting something that Hinata couldn't pinpoint, but when the brunet just brushed his nose he quickly opened them up in surprise.

"What was that?" he asked looking completely lost.

"You had paint on your nose and it was irritating me." Hinata said as it was the most obvious thing.

"Oh." was all that Komaeda managed.

'Maybe I should give a heads-up next time I decide to do that.' Hinata thought to himself as a little blush appeared on his face too.

The shorter boy wiped his hand and turned back to the white head. "So I heard that a bunch of thugs approached you a few days ago." he tried to not-so-subtly change the flow of the conversation as to not further embarrass himself. "Souda told me that he was being the brave hero and 'protected' all of you, but frankly I don't really believe a word of that part." Hinata folded his hands.

"Souda?" Komaeda looked at him surprised. "He was hiding behind Ibuki the whole time."

"Ha, I knew it." the brunet snapped his fingers. "Now it's my job to not let him live it down. Thanks for the info." he grinned at Komaeda.

"It's a pleasure." the white haired boy chirped back. 

"So do you need some help with your part of the work?" 

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble."


End file.
